Paolo Girardelli is the leading authority on the Italian influence on 19th- and early-20th-century Ottoman architecture. Here he addresses the rise and fall and rise again of a Catholic presence in the urban landscape of Istanbul, from its days as a powerful Genoese trading colony at the heart of the Byzantine Empire to the emergence of Great Power dominance and Catholic conversions among the wealthy Armenian community in the Ottoman 19th century.
The talk is given in Turkish and is part of the Istanbul Research Institute’s ‘Chamber Talks’ (Arka Oda Toplantası) series.
Image: Pera Cadde-i Kebiri (now İstiklal Caddesi), detail, c1809, anonymous. Victoria & Albert Museum
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
