Reminiscences of Ottoman vernacular in Galata

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the lost heritage of the vernacular architecture in Galata district in Istanbul that existed during the Ottoman period. It presents the Ottoman vernacular houses that once existed in the area that were lost throughout the centuries due to the big fires and rapid reconstructions. The paper presents this rich vernacular architecture by detecting its existence and analysis from gravures, sketches and images from the past. After the Ottoman conquest, Galata as well as the city of Constantinople was affected by the process of Ottomanization. The transformations were very much predominant in the urban layout and the texture of the area was improved by more domestic and traditional architecture in wood, remarking Galata into a typical Ottoman environment. After the conquest, the former Genoese colony evolved, in architectural manner. This was achieved through the towns‘ growth marked with arrival of foreigners, the so called ‘Franks’ or Levantines, who were attracted to those lands by the new possibilities to expand trades and commerce from the European and Mediterranean coasts towards the East. These populations settled in the Galata area, bringing their own cultural habits, customs, traditions as well as religion, —contaminating” the already existing and mixed local population, composed predominantly of Greeks, or better Rum, Armenians and Jews and later on of Moors, Arabs as well as Turks. The Ottoman Galata was affected severely during the mid-nineteenth century and up until the proclamation of the Turkish Republic, when the rich vernacular built environment slowly disappeared leaving very little traces today, of what once used to be a typical example of an Ottoman vernacular in the capital. The paper traces this history and presents a glimpse into the ottoman vernacular in Galata.