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Tatavla (Agios Dimitrios St. Dimitrius, Küçük Atina, Little Athens)

North of Pera, the great hill’s incline lessens. The urbane elegance of embassies and mansions quickly changes into the pleasant middle-class suburb of Tatavla at the hill's crest. Tiered houses and cobbler or seamstress shops line the rocky lanes winding around and over hills.  No trace of devastation remains from the 1832 fire that destroyed over 600 houses. Tatavla is primarily a Greek quarter, but its Greek inhabitants exclusively call their home “St. Dimitrius” after the famous church at the center of their community. The Turks refer to the neighborhood as Tatavla, (or more insultingly Giaour Tatavla) because Genoese merchants kept their stables on the land long ago, Tatavla being Greek for “horse stables”. Colloquially, they also name the quarter Küçük Atina, meaning Little Athens.

In the mid-1500s, the Ottoman navy populated Tatavla with captured Greek sailors from the Aegean Sea, brought to Constantinople as slaves for the shipyards of Kassim Pasha. Soon after, the Ottoman Empire obtained the Greek island of Chios. As its denizens immigrated to Constantinople, they chose to settle near their countrymen in the idyllic and beautiful quarter of Tatavla. Under the protection of the Kapitan-I Deryas needing Greek labor in their shipyards, the quarter grew in relative tranquility. In 1793, a proclamation from the Sultan prohibited followers of religions other than Greek Aluminat living in Tatavla much to the approval of quarter’s population.

Both Greeks and non-Greeks patronize the tavernas and wineries of Tatavla. Small communities of Armenians, Jews, Turks, and Englishmen live in the southern slopes of Tatavla. The relaxing holiday atmosphere attracts Europeans escaping the bustling pace of Pera or the often impenetrable ways of Stambul. Music and singing flow from the windows of houses and the doors of coffee houses. Colorful festivals and carnivals frequently fill the streets and bring visitors of all nations and faiths across Constantinople to Tatavla.

Although it sees far less of the Turkish reprisals and bigotry than the Greek communities across the Golden Horn in Stambul, an atmosphere of unease and revolt rises up from Tatavla’s narrow upward-sloping streets. If the Greek War for Independence lurks in recent memory, so much more does the massacre of Chios back in 1822. Thousands of rebellious Greeks died at the hand of the Ottoman army on the island from whence descends much of Tatavla’s population, and their children taken into Ottoman families. Many Greek Aluminates would rather ally with their fellow believers in Russia than fight for a Nithamiyeen Sultan but the Russian influence in Tatavla lies deeper than that. Long before the outbreak of war, the Russian Embassy funded several charities, community associations, and schools serving the Greek population of Constantinople. While the Czarina closed the embassy’s doors and recalled the staff, some of the charities remain. For example, the Tatavla Philanthropic Society still operates a free clinic and arranges loans to growing businesses.

Tatavla’s physical and ethnic distance from Ottoman authority made some sections of the quarter a criminal haven. Bandits and rouges stealing from travelers along the roads to Constantinople find safety or even veneration in Tatavla as a sort of philanthropic protector of the Greeks. Houses of ill repute and sordid tavernas offer dangerous distractions.

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This week we finish up Pera, the elegant European quarter of Constantinople. Then we climb  higher up the hill into the Greek neighborhood of Tatavla.

Petite Champs De Mort

Two lovely open parks border Pera’s Westside, the Petite Champs in the north, and the Petite Champs De Mort in the south. Petite Champs is a pleasant public garden, with well maintained orderly lawns and bushes. Brass bands play concerts in the open air during the summer.

Further south, near the shore of the Golden Horn, Pera’s residents gather in the evening’s cool to the lush cemetery, the Petitie Champs De Mort. The entire cemetery sits on a hillside slanting down towards the waterside.

Gravestones lie fallen to the erosion of time, and tall, straight cypress trees grow thickly among the graves and foot-beaten paths.  Houses surround much of the cemeteries’ two miles circumference. Their tenants live as close to their ancestor’s graves as possible.  Vines and clinging plants grow from the graveyard up their walls. Enterprising coffee sellers opened shops in the cemeteries’ east side. Their patrons contentedly sip their drinks whilst seated at tables surrounded by headstones. Lemonade, sweets, and fruit peddlers sell their goods to young people strolling among the dead. Some young boys play marbles on top of the flattest fallen monuments. Shocking behavior to those who respectfully venerate their dead.

The Naum Theater

Across the Grand Rue De Pera from the college of Galata Serai, Europeans, Levantines, Greeks, Armenians, and Turks gather at the Naum Theater for an evening’s entertainment. In Constantinople’s past, many ambitious impresarios opened theaters in Pera-Galata culture only to close from bankruptcy or the outcry of offended Ottoman decency. Tanzimat reforms, Sultan Mahmud II’s ear for European music, and a growing population of Europeans starved for entertainment opened the door for an opera house to thrive in Constantinople.

The famous Italian stage illusionist, Bartolomeo Bosco, built the original theater in the early 1800s. After his sudden departure from Constantinople in 1841 (preceded by a request from Sultan Abdulmejid to magically cause the heads of two slaves to switch bodies after the illusionist performed such a trick with colored pigeons), two Armenian brothers, Michael and Joseph Naum inherited Bosco’s theater. Michael became the theater manager with great reluctance but he soon blossomed as an impresario.

Every year he scours the stages of Italy for famous performers and entices them to appear on his stage. For the 1855 opera season, the famous soprano Fanny Salvini-Donatelli stars in La Taviata as Violetta, a role which she originated. Among the other operas in the company’s repertoire are Crispino e la comare , La straniera, Il crociato in Egitto, L'Italiana in Algeri, and the Barber of Seville, however  certain scandalous plot elements have been bowdlerized to suit Turkish sensibilities. The theater also hosts performances of ballet, stage magic shows, reception dinners, and even concerts of traditional Turkish music.

A city fire in 1847 damaged the theater, ending all performances.. Fortunately, the Naum brothers planned to demolish the building at the end of the theatrical season to rebuild and this disaster gave them the chance to petition the Sultan for more funds to make a grander and more modern opera house. With the Sultan’s backing, the brothers built an excellent theater with seating for 1,000 patrons. Three stories of boxes loom high over the pit and gallery. Portraits of opera composers decorate the theater ceiling.  The Sultan also has a private box furnished with crimson and gold. Because of the funds from the Sultan, it’s also known as the Imperial Theater.

Recently, the opera witnessed scenes of violence among its patrons. Fistfights seem to break out during every performance and a French officer was stabbed in the street outside.

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The Hotel d’Angleterre

South of Embassies, on the corner of the Rue Coumbaraji and the Grand Rue De Pera, well connected and well-heeled English travelers live and dine at the finest hotel in Constantinople, the Hotel d’Angleterre. The hotel is a simple three-story wooden building with windows in every guestroom. A multitude of chimneys pop out of the tiles on the roof.

Before the war in Crimea, only a handful of sightseers, clergy, and diplomats sat around the hotel’s dinner table each evening. Political tensions pulled Constantinople to prominence, bringing a constant crowd of newcomers to the city needing a clean room, a warm bed, and a hot meal. Each night, the dining room of the Hotel d’Angleterre, built to accommodate twenty guests, witnesses a gathering of military officers, engineers, consuls, inventors, and journalists that often exceeds forty. It is as hard to get a room as it is a seat at the table! Rooms with a view of the Bosporus are yet harder to obtain.

The proprietor, James Misseri presides over the chaos with strict rules and a curfew at 11. His years traveling as the manservant of the famous Alexander Kinglake provided Misseri the authority and the depth of knowledge needed to operate such an excellent hotel in such an unusual city. His wife is an Englishwoman and an excellent hostess, giving her English guest a taste of home and a sympathetic ear.

For those fortunate enough to procure a room, the cost is 12s 6d (roughly 63 piastres) a day for a private room and meals. Guests also have access to a variety of English papers and periodicals. The hotel employs trustworthy guides, interpreters, and servants to help sightseers for a reasonable fee.

When the Hotel d’Angleterre cannot possibly accommodate more guests, Misseri directs disappointed travelers to the nearby Hotel des Ambassadeurs, the Hotel de Byzanee, and the Hotel d’Europe.

The Hotel d’Europe

Located halfway between the docks in Tophane where newcomers disembark from their ships and the heart of Pera, the Hotel d’Europe offers comfortable lodging at a less expansive rate than the hotels on the Grand Rue de Pera. The rooms are large and well furnished, but the surrounding neighborhood can be irksomely noisy despite the hotel’s well-insulated stone walls. Private rooms cost 10s a day, including a breakfast with coffee and a dinner with wine, although customers with a tight budget could haggle the price down in exchange for a less prestigious room. The Hotel d’Europe subscribes to many European newspapers for its guests to read.

An Italian named Giovanni Destuniano manages the hotel. He previously worked at the Hotel d’Angleterre as a valet for hire, before leaving for the Hotel d’Europe. No ill will exists between Mr. Misseri and Mr. Destuniano because of their gentlemanly conduct and the very different clientele accommodated by their hotels.  The Hotel d’Europe is very popular with bachelors for its less expensive rooms, less structured schedules for meals and curfew, and location nearer the entertainments of Galata.

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In this week's post, we're looking at specific diplomatic missions which are the heart of European life in Constantinople.

-The English Embassy

Back from the Grand Rue de Pera, along the Rue Aslan, craftsmen strive to finish the newly rebuilt English embassy at the top of Pera’s hill. The massive city fire that devastated Pera in 1831, also destroyed the old English embassy, despite the building’s relative seclusion from the other buildings ablaze. Ambassador Canning and his family moved into the new embassy in 1848, despite the embassies unfinished condition.

The new embassy is a three-storied neoclassical building made of white stone, surrounded by gardens full of shrubs and myrtle trees. The Latin inscription across its façade below the roof translates to “British Embassy built for Queen Victoria in 1844”. This new embassy has a new fireproof records office unattached to the embassy building, making it one of the most secure places in Constantinople to store important documents. The embassy’s jail still has not been replaced.

Since 1842, Ambassador Stratford Canning represents the Queen to the Sultan’s court and is an ardent supporter of Tanzimat’s reforms. The logistical and strategic failures of the English army in the Crimea terribly worry Ambassador Canning. He tries to coordinate his nation’s military efforts in Constantinople.

-The French Embassy

The first ambassador representing a European power to the Ottoman Court was Ambassador Jean de la Forest, who opened the French embassy of Constantinople in 1535. After centuries of diplomacy, the French embassy holds the most influence on the Ottoman bureaucracy, followed by the English.

The French Embassy is back from the street where the Grand Rue de Pera bends south, on the Rue de Pologne. The embassy is a fine old mansion made of white stone. A multitude of potted ferns and flowers brighten its large high-ceilinged halls and provide shade from the warm sun. Outside more plants fill the embassy’s magnificent garden and a beautiful fountain gurgles water making for a very inviting environ. The mansion once belonged to the Ypsilantis, a prominent Greek family, some of whom were a part of the Filiki Eteria, a secret society dedicated to Greek Independence from the Ottoman Empire.

The current Ambassador of France is Édouard Antoine de Thouvenel. His predecessor left last year to command the French navy in the Baltic Sea, and Thouvenel was quickly assigned to Constantinople. He may be new to the city, but he’s served as a diplomat abroad in Belgium, Spain, and Greece. Thouvenel eagerly awaits the arrival of his wife and infant son.

-The Russian Embassy

At the onset of the war, the Czarina closed all diplomacy with the Ottoman Empire and locked the doors of her nation’s embassy in Constantinople. At the Southern end of the Grand Rue de Pera, it remains the largest embassy in the city, a large yellow building with colonnades around its exterior.

Despite its neglected condition, the French army uses the embassy as a hospital for convalescing officers far from the Crimean front. Every evening, Wheelchair-bound soldiers tended by brave nurses take in the incredible sights of Constantinople from the embassies’ balcony.

-The American Legation

Although the first American consulate in Constantinople started twenty-four years ago in 1831, the relationship between the United States and the Ottoman Empire is more financial than political. American businesses found a whole new market in the Ottoman Empire for cotton, rum, and other goods. In return, American firms import Ottoman products, such as silver, opium, dried fruits, and nuts. The United States remains neutral and mostly uninterested in European affairs.

A small consulate on the Grand Rue de Pera, east of Galata Serai, keeps an eye on America’s business interests in the Ottoman Empire. The consul, a Maryland lawyer named Carroll Spence, who received his appointment as a reward for campaigning on behalf of President Peirce. In the two years he’s been consul, Carroll visited much of the Middle East, and is a founding member of the Auxiliary Aluminat Society of Constantinople, a society dedicated to spreading the Eight Voices through the Ottoman Empire.