Latin, Armenian, Ottoman: transformation and ambivalence in the Catholic architecture of Pera and Galata during the 18^th century

Prof. Paolo GIRARDELLI, Boğazıçı University

After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, the Latin Catholic community of Pera/Galata entered a phase of decline in numbers, paralleled by the loss of many of its sanctuaries. Resilience, and struggle for survival, were characteristic features of the community during the 16^th and 17^th century, with an anti-climax in this descending profile represented by the loss of the complex of San Francesco, damaged by fire in 1696 and turned into the no-longer standing Yeni Valide Mosque of Karaköy. However, the 18^th century represented a period of relative recovery and growth, fueled especially by the numerous conversions of Ottoman Armenians to the catholic confession. This phenomenon affected at large the social topography of the city, and also exerted an ambivalent influence of the architecture of Latin Churches of the city. As evidence from the archives of Propaganda Fide shows, most Catholic sanctuaries between the early  18^th century and the final acknowledgment by Mahmut II of a new Catholic Armenian “nation” (millet) in 1830, were used by a large majority of Armenians, far more numerous than the few Latin Catholics of Levantine and European background. Being in large part still Ottoman subjects, these Armenians could live as Catholics only in a state of semi-clandestinity. This paper will analyze how this peculiar situation was reflected in the religious architecture of Pera and Galata, transforming the Latin sanctuaries into crypto-Armenian spaces, displaying remarkable Ottoman features.