Alexandre Vallaury

[[File:Décugis House, Beyoğlu (16221776045).jpg|thumb|Décugis House, Beyoğlu, Istanbul]] '''Alexandre Vallaury''' (1850–1921<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Laegreid |first1=Sissel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o9gKEAAAQBAJ |title=The Borders of Europe: Hegemony, Aesthetics and Border Poetics |last2=Skorgen |first2=Torgeir |last3=Holm |first3=Helge Vidar |date=2012-10-31 |publisher=Aarhus Universitetsforlag |isbn=978-87-7124-734-3 |language=en}}</ref>) was a Franco-Ottoman architect who established architectural education in the Ottoman Empire at the School of Fine Arts in Constantinople. Nicknamed "architect of the city" ({{langx|ota|Mimar-ı Şehir}}) by Osman Hamdi Bey, Vallaury, alongside his collaborator and palace architect Raimondo D'Aronco, was a leading practitioner of Orientalist eclecticism.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kula Say |first1=Seda |title=Alexander Vallaury's Architecture: an Overview |url=http://levantineheritage.com/note148.htm |website=Levantine Heritage Foundation |access-date=26 November 2023}}</ref>

==Biography== [[File:Ottoman Bank.jpg|thumb|Ottoman Bank Headquarters]] [[File:Pera Palas Hotel, Tepebaşı, İstanbul (13080140803).jpg|thumb|Pera Palace Hotel]] [[File:Ottoman Public Debt Administration, Istanbul (16033721400).jpg|thumb|Postcard of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration building, currently the Istanbul High School]]

Vallaury (also spelled Vallauri) was born in 1850 into a Levantine family in Istanbul. His father, Francesco Vallauri, was a renowned pastry chef from Nice, highly respected in court circles. Vallaury's nationality is not definitively known; he was born in modern day Istanbul and, as his family emigrated from Nice at a time when the city was still under piedmontese rule, he is assumed to have been of both Franco-Levantine or Italian-Levantine extraction due to his affinity to both cultures.

Between 1869 and 1878, Vallaury lived in Paris, France, where he studied architecture at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Returning to Istanbul in 1880, he met Osman Hamdi Bey, who was at that time curator of the newly established Imperial Museum ({{langx|tr|Müze-i Humayun}} - now the Istanbul Archaeology Museum), during an exhibition of his relief drawings of various architectural monuments. The two artists worked closely together in the fields of archaeology, museum work and education in fine arts.

Following the foundation of the first School of Fine Arts ({{langx|tr|Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi}}, now the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University) in Turkey on January 1, 1882, Alexandre Vallaury started working in the architecture department. He lectured at the school for 25 years until his retirement in 1908.

Following the 1894 Istanbul earthquake, he was appointed to work on various commissions for city planning. Remembered by Osman Bey as the "City Architect" (''Mimar-ı Şehir''), Vallaury was almost invariably the architect chosen by the upper echelons of Ottoman high officials and French business circles while he worked at the School of Fine Arts. On some of these projects, he worked with the Italian architect Raimondo D'Aronco, the chief architect at the sultan's palace.

In 1896, he was awarded France's Legion of Honour to go with many other medals and awards from the French and Ottoman governments.

Vallaury combined traditional Ottoman architecture with elements of Beaux-Arts architecture in the buildings he designed for members of the palace and for high officials in Istanbul. His architecture showed great variety, drawing on a broad spectrum of styles from Islamic-Ottoman synthesis to Neoclassical architecture. He used motifs from international Orientalism for some Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Ottoman structures which often incorporated Neo-Baroque and Art Nouveau details. His workshop was located at Saint Pierre Han in Galata.<ref name=MaviBoncuk3>{{cite web |website=Mavi Boncuk - Cornucopia of Ottomania and Turcomania |url=http://maviboncuk.blogspot.com/2022/04/discovering-saint-pierre-han-part-3.html |title=Discovering Saint Pierre Han, Part 3 }}</ref>

[[Image:haydarpasa campus general.jpg|thumb|600px|Imperial College of Medicine (Ottoman Turkish: ''Mekteb-i Tıbbiye-i Şâhâne''), currently the Haydarpaşa Hamidiye Campus of the University of Health Sciences (until 2015 the Haydarpaşa Campus of Marmara University) in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul. The building was designed by architects Alexandre Vallaury and Raimondo D'Aronco.|center]]

==Notable works== [[File:Grand Pera.jpg|thumb|''Cercle de l'Orient'' building, Istanbul, today the Grand Pera complex]] [[File:Wooden building on the Bosphorus.jpg|thumb|''Yalı'' of Ahmet Afif Pasha in Yeniköy on the European coast of the Bosphorus strait, designed by Alexandre Vallaury.]]

* Afif Pasha waterfront mansion (''Muhayyeş Yalısı''), (circa 1910) - Yeniköy, Istanbul * Café Lebon (from 1940 on Café Marquise - ''Markiz Pastanesi'') (1880) - Beyoğlu, Istanbul * Décugis house (today Galata Antique Hotel) (1881) - Beyoğlu, Istanbul *Grand Pera (Cercle de l'Orient building and Emek cinema) (1883) - İstiklal Avenue, Beyoğlu, Istanbul * Haydarpaşa Breakwater (1902) - Kadıköy, Istanbul * Hezaren Han (1902) - Karaköy, Istanbul * Hidayet Mosque (1887) - Eminönü, Istanbul * Hotel Pera Palace (1881-1891) -Beyoğlu, Istanbul * Imperial Military School of Medicine (with Raimondo D'Aronco; later Haydarpaşa High School, today Marmara University Faculty of Law) (1893-1902) - Haydarpaşa, Istanbul * Imperial Ottoman Bank and Ottoman Tobacco Company headquarters (1892) - Karaköy, Istanbul * Istanbul Archaeology Museum main building (1891-1907) - Sultanahmet, Istanbul * Ömer Abed Han (1902) - Karaköy, Istanbul * Osman Reis Mosque (1903-1904) - Sarıyer, Istanbul * Ottoman Public Debt Administration building (later Istanbul High School) (1897) - Cağaloğlu, Istanbul * Prinkipo Greek Orthodox Orphanage (1898-1899) - Büyükada, Istanbul * Union Francaise building (in 2018, temporary home of İstanbul Modern) (1896) - Beyoğlu, Istanbul

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category|Alexandre Vallaury|Alexandre Vallaury}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070301020332/http://www.archmuseum.org/biyografi.asp?id=59 Biography at Museum of Architecture website] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927214104/http://www.archmuseum.org/galeri_resimler.asp?sayfa=1&id=12&exid=3 Photo gallery at Museum of Architecture website]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vallaury, Alexandre}} Category:1850 births Category:Architects from Istanbul Category:Architects from the Ottoman Empire Category:19th-century French architects Category:20th-century French architects Category:Buildings and structures in Istanbul Category:Recipients of the Legion of Honour Category:1921 deaths Category:People from the Ottoman Empire of French descent Category:Art Nouveau architects Category:Expatriates from the Ottoman Empire in France Category:French expatriates in Turkey Category:Expatriate academics in Turkey Category:Academic staff of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University