Architect Alexandre Vallaury’s Report on Edirnekapı Mihrimah Sultan Mosque Affected by the 1894 Istanbul Earthquake

Abstract

As it is known, Istanbul is described as “seven-hill “city with an aim to attribute to Antic Roman city located on seven hill mythos. All these hills are located on the historical peninsula, which is called as “Historical Peninsula” in foreign literature. Edirnekapı Mihrimah Mosque, which is subject to our study, was designed and constructed on the sixth and highest one of those hills by Mimar Sinan (Architecture Sinan) in 16. Century. This Mosque has been exposed to various damages due to numerous earthquakes and fires from the date of construction to today, therefore, many repairment activities have taken place, sometimes, some of those leaving serious damages to its unique form. Among those especially 1894 earthquake, which caused damages to many historical structures in the city, has special importance in the history of this mosque. It is known that following this earthquake, opinions of various architectures of the period were taken in order to regain this important structure of Ottoman Classical Architectural Age. One of those architectures was French originated Levantine architecture Alexandre Vallaury who set his seal on the late 19th and early 20th century’s architecture, especially, with his designs and structures in İstanbul in that period.  Besides his being an architecture, Vallaury was known as architecture lecturer at Sanayi-i Nefise Mekteb-i Alisi, which was the sort of fine arts faculty of the period. Twelve years after 1894 earthquake, Vallaury was able to assess the damage to Edirnekapı Mihrimah Mosque and prepare a report including his findings, required restorations and, in general, the technical recommendation to restore the damaged parts of the structure.