From the Palazzo di Venezia: A Historical Gaze upon Beyoğlu

The second stop of the conversation I continued with Hayri Fehmi Yılmaz in Beyoğlu is the Palazzo di Venezia, whose walls are witnesses to history. Far more than a diplomatic building, the palazzo gives away the spirit of Pera once it is read together with the urban growth of the quarter around it.

The century-old portraits inside and the sober emblems cut into the façade say plainly which link of the diplomatic chain the building belongs to: from the Venetian bailo, the republic’s resident envoy, to the Austrian embassy, and from there to the representation of Italy.

As for how a dwelling became a grand embassy, the answer lies in Pera’s striking transformation in the nineteenth century: as the transport network changed shape, the function of buildings and their standing within the city were rewritten.

The siting of the Pera Palace, Palazzo Corpi and the making of the Casa d’Italia can be read by the rules of exactly this diplomatic and urban network. Following the noble arms on façades and the names that have nearly worn away keeps lighting that narrow road into the quarter’s diplomatic history, a road that always promises discoveries.