RAIMANDO D’ARONCO

Without a doubt the one person whose artwork in architecture and buildings in Istanbul during the era of the Ottoman Empire had the most lasting effect and influenced future architecture for centuries in the city is the Master Architect Sinan who lived during the sixteenth century. With the modernization efforts beginning in the 19th Century reflected in the architecture, the Palace Architect Sarkis Balyan along with his brothers built several imperial mosques and and pavilions on the grounds of Yildiz Palace, all of them with traces of Gothic and Baroque style in harmony with Ottoman interpretation. But one name shines at the end of 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th as the sole architect who left his traces more than any other with numerous mansions, tombs, fountains and even a clock tower. The Italian architect Raimondo Tommasino D’Aronco who introduced Art Nouveau to Istanbul not only designed buildings and works of art from the Historical Peninsula to the European district of Pera and to the shores of Bosphorus; but also revived several historical buildings by restoring them to their original form.

The young Raimondo had his initial training at the Baukunst School of Construction in the Austrian city of Graz and then attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, studying architecture and arts. Graduating from the Academy the young architect start experimenting freely with different forms of architecture and trying to bring a contemporary interpretation to styles like Neo Gothic and Neo Baroque. When Sultan Abdulhamid II invited him to Istanbul in 1893, he was able to put all of his unique and experimental designs to use in the Ottoman Capital.

In 1893 D’Aronco was invited to Istanbul to prepare the design for the Istanbul Exhibition of Agriculture and industry. Accepting the invitation he came to Istanbul and started working on the blueprints for the exhibition to be held in 1896. On July 10 1894 while the foundation for the exhibit was ready to be laid an Earthquake devastated Istanbul. Not only thousands of people lost their lives, but also several historical mosques and buildings were destroyed. Under these circumstances all of the funds allocated to the Istanbul Exhibit of Agriculture and Industry were transferred in rebuilding the city and D’Aronco was given the task of supervising the restoration of all damaged imperial mosques and buildings. The Italian architect who had planned to stay in Istanbul for three years ended up staying in the Ottoman Capital for sixteen years. In these sixteen years, the most productive period of his career, he not only rebuilt and restored several historic buildings of Istanbul, he also designed and built several new ones in the city. The architect who blended Art Nouveau with Ottoman design in his works returnedin 1909 back to Italy with the deposition of Sultan Abdulhamid.

Following collection of work constitutes his major and unique works which left his traces forever in Istanbul.

Informatıon taken from Cem Ozmeral's wrıtıng at ıstanbullite.com
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