A LANDMARK BUILDING IN ISTANBUL WHICH INSPIRED A RECENT NOVEL
Botter Apartment, Istanbul’s first Art Nouveau building, symbolizes the intersection of fashion, architecture, and history.
By Erol Güler
Casa Botter, the building whose restoration was completed by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM), started to serve under the name “Casa Botter Art and Design Center.”
The 124-year-old building is the work of Raimondo D’Aronco, the Italian architect, and is named after Jean Botter, a fashion designer who immigrated to Istanbul from the Netherlands. The Ottoman Sultan, II. Abdülhamid had ordered a large and impressive exhibition to be held in Istanbul. For this exhibition, an agreement was made with Italian architect Raimondo D’Aronco, who had made a name for himself in Europe and worked in many parts of the world. The Italian architect, who loved Istanbul very much, accepted the sultan’s offer. However, the Istanbul earthquake that occurred in 1894 ruined all plans. After the devastating earthquake, the exhibition was postponed indefinitely. When the exhibition was postponed due to the earthquake, D’Aronco decided to repair the buildings damaged by the earthquake. The Italian architect, who is deeply attached to Istanbul, worked in Istanbul for 15 years.
Jean Botter was the official fashion designer and tailor of the palace. Botter, who was dreaming of opening a Western-style fashion house, one day shared this request with the sultan. After what Botter said, Abdülhamid told him about D’Aronco. This conversation forms the building block of today’s Botter Apartment. Botter and D’Aronco quickly agreed and put their heads together, and Botter purchased a plot of land. This land, which has a magnificent view of Istanbul and Bosporus, is the exact location where Casa Botter is located today. Botter takes delivery of the building from Raimondo D’Aronco one year later. Jean Botter continued his professional work in this fashion house, as institutionalized in Europe, as both a fashion house and a building where his family members could spend their lives.
The building, located at number 235 on Istiklal Street, was built next to the current Swedish Consulate building. It is the first example in Istanbul of buildings designed to be used both as workplaces and residences, examples of which are mostly seen in Europe. Botter Apartment, whose facade is decorated with plant motif borders and human head figures adorned with flowers, is important in terms of architectural history as it is the first Art Nouveau style building built in Istanbul. The projects of this building, which the architect conceived to the smallest detail, are in the Udine City Museum in Italy. The building is registered as a first-degree cultural property that needs to be protected.
The ground floor of the Botter Apartment was used as Türkiye’s first fashion house under the name “Botter Fashion House.” The basement floor was designed as a warehouse. The front of the first floor was a high-ceilinged large hall, the back was the assistant tailors’ rooms. The first floor was designed as a workshop and warehouse, and the second-third floor and the attic were designed as residence. After the apartment was built, it quickly became one of Pera’s most popular buildings and a center of attraction along with the nearby Lebon and Markiz patisseries. European fashion was introduced to the rich people of Istanbul through fashion shows held here. There was a mezzanine floor on the store floor, which was accessed by a pair of stairs and used for fashion shows. Unfortunately this floor has not survived to the present day because it was removed in 1960 when the apartment building was converted into a bank branch.
The building is considered to be among the most beautiful examples of the 19th century Art Nouveau style in terms of its facade decoration features. Long branches and roses on the branches decorated the apartment entrance door and the store area. The balcony on the first floor, decorated with flower-like motifs that also serve as lamps, is carried to the facade with four pillars and supported from below by two iron railings. Balcony railings with floral motifs, supporting pillars, furnaces, and lamps are the architect’s original designs. The ground floor is divided into three equal rectangular openings. The entrance door is in the southernmost opening. In the section where the entrance door is located, the pediment is decorated with vegetal decoration consisting of flowers, leaves, and fruits, protruding from the surface. This part is supported by branches coming out of a vase on the sides and scattering. There are coats of arms above the three rectangular windows on the first floor. There are wreaths consisting of a combination of flowers, leaves, and fruits on the pediments and pediment corners of the rectangular windows of the third floor. Ribbons attached to nail motifs hang from the ends of the medallions in the corners. In the corners, you can see a woman’s face with wavy hair surrounded by plant motifs. The author of the book “Botter Apartmanı,” Ayşe Övür, weaves a platonic love story around this woman’s face.
The Botter Family migrated to Paris after experiencing great pain when their young son, who went on a trip to Paris, fell ill and died. Therefore they sold the building to Mahmut Nedim Efendi, the son of Kaptan Osman Paşa, who was the Navy Minister. When Nedim Bey passed away at a young age in 1939, his wife Zeynep (Ovayar) Hanım rented the lower floors to be used as offices by various commercial organizations. During this period, poet Ferit Edgü rented and restored the third floor of the building for the advertising agency he founded, and used it as a residence after the agency moved. After the death of Ms. Zeynep, the Treasury seized the abandoned building. As a result of the legal process that started after the second-degree heirs claimed their rights and lasted for years, the building was left neglected. In 2007, Zeynep Ovyar’s nephews took over the Botter Apartment from the Treasury. IMM Deputy Secretary General Mahir Polat stated in an interview the following: “You all know the deterioration that Istiklal Street has experienced in recent decades. We believe that the restoration of Istiklal Street, with its urban, historical and cultural value, has the potential to have a greater impact on Istanbul than expected. Botter had a tree growing on its roof. It was a structure that made us wonder how to get rid of it as we passed by. It needed to be restored as soon as possible, but it was a building with private property problems. We talked to the family for a very long time. We tried to develop solutions on how the public can act here with various options.” Finally the Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu was able to succeed in a solution, the restoration of the building could be realized, and the building was opened to public use.
The Book
The Botter Apartment, which stood abandoned for many years, is quite unique. The fact that the story of this building, which shines like a pearl in the heart of Istanbul, extends to the present day is one of the biggest proofs of how special it is. Most of the people passing by this apartment building along Istiklal Street do not know its story. However, the building, now risen from its ashes, was also the subject of Ayşe Övür’s novel with the same name.
Author Ayşe Övür said in an interview that she was very impressed by Botter’s story and wanted to crown her admiration for the fashion designer with a novel. Övür, who studied archeology at Istanbul University, said that she never forgot the Botter Apartment, which she passed in front of during her student years, and that she had always thought about this apartment for years. Övür told the story of writing the book as follows: “Undoubtedly, there are many buildings in Istiklal Street and Beyoğlu that have witnessed history. In the first stage, I focused on three different buildings. Mısır Apartmanı, Ragıp Paşa Apartmanı and Botter Apartmanı. As I expanded my research, I was impressed by the identities of both Jean Botter and Raimondo D’Aranco and decided on Botter Apartment. During this process, there were also experts I consulted and got advice from. Botter Apartment was an abandoned building at the time I decided to write the novel. “One of the things that impressed me the most was the current loneliness of the building, which had a glorious past.”
The novel tells the story of the Botter Apartment providing parallel stories of Botter’s time and a current residence of the Botter Apartment. The book emphasizes that what is felt now was felt by someone a century ago, too, and even dozens of centuries ago. While time revolves around us like a crazy propeller, it also carries information from the past. Then, who knows how many generations of knowledge have flowed into our cells, how many generations of tears, happiness and pain. And you will see that traumas that were experienced in the past and were thought to have no power anymore still affect people in various ways. The stories in the novel also emphasize that human beings are not immune to tragedies, whether rich or poor, or educated or uneducated. As you read the novel, you will witness its infiltration into your life as well.
