Istanbul History and Houses: Discovering the Levantine Glavany Family
Note: this article was originally published on 30 October 2024, on my Substack newsletter, The Traveller’s Literary Supplicant.
By Christopher Deliso
—In a maritime metropolis, a gang of treasure hunters digs during pandemic, secretly breaking into a dangerous, dilapidated old mansion…
It sounds like fiction—but it actually happened, as Turkey’s Sabah reported in 2021, referring to the Kandilli Mansion incident. Built in the 1890s by prominent banker David Glavany, this house in Istanbul’s Üsküdar neighborhood (also called the Glavany Mansion) is one of the city’s few surviving structures associated with this historic family of traders, bankers, diplomats and managers. Along with other ethnically-mixed Levantine families, the Glavany dynasty had a major, if now largely forgotten, role in Ottoman trade and statecraft over five centuries.
Incidents like the treasure-hunt caper make great plot-points for historical fiction premises (perhaps I should add it to my Detective Grigoris series, coverage of which resumes next month). Yet the current post concerns history: that is, exciting new research on the Glavanys who, despite having roots back to the 12th century and attested gravestones and baptismal records in Ottoman lands, have been largely forgotten by both modern Turkey and general history.
Yesterday, I listened in to another focused talk organized by the UK-based Levantine Heritage Foundation, given by Turkish and Greek scholars who will publish their findings on the Glavany family’s historical role and architectural contributions, as in a 2026 academic book.
In examining the Levantine Glavany family and some of its famous members and famous buildings in a historic context, an argument was made that social mobility and negotiation of sophisticated international tastes and realities (from in-demand skills to architectural stylings) made such people indispensable to both the Ottoman state, and the European powers seeking to make advantageous trade and diplomacy with it. More than the record of a single bygone family, therefore, the presentation reconfirmed the singular importance of an entire class of Ottoman subjects (of many families and mixed European nationalities) who became increasingly vital to the empire’s smooth operations from the 16th century to the early 20th century.
The Speakers
The talk was given by Turkish historian Dr. Efe Erünal and Greek architect Dr. Alexandra Koumpouli. Focusing on Ottoman and post-Ottoman economic, demographic, and social history, Dr. Erünal received his PhD from Koç University (2023), and presently teaches at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. For her part, Dr. Koumpouli, is a practicing architect (Diploma/ M.Sc. NTU Athens), with a Ph.D. in Archaeology and Art History from Koç University (2024). Late Ottoman urbanism in house architecture and Eastern Mediterranean multi-ethnic settlements (for example, the Ottoman monuments of Greece) have featured in her research work.
The Glavany Family in Ottoman History
Dr. Erünal discussed the documented origins and some prominent members of the Glavany family, starting in 1600, and their ties with the island of Chios, the Genoese nobility, Dutch dragoman service and most importantly, work with Britain and France. (Today’s Glavany descendants are mostly French, and include a famous WWII pilot and a modern politician). Like other Levantine families, their multi-lingual and multi-sectoral skills won them influential spots in trade, banking, diplomacy, and infrastructure projects. The point of contact was inevitability the Ottoman state’s increased contact with Europe, European funds, and modernization attempts.
Going into detail on several specific events and key family figures, Dr. Erünal discussed various high positions held by Glavany descendants, as well as pivotal roles in everything from banking decisions and industrial development projects to military acquisitions and diplomatic adventures for the Sultan, as different alliance systems came and went with different wars, economic pressures and geopolitical competitions between and within states. The hands-on role that these Levantines played was underscored by the historian, who made a convincing case for their central role—often, behind the scenes—in many important events and negotiations of later Ottoman history.
The Glavany Family’s Contributions to Ottoman Architecture
The talk was also accompanied by a display of historic paintings and photos, which is important as they attest to buildings and architectural stylings that have not survived into today’s Istanbul. Here, Dr. Koumpouli noted that the joint research relied on records from the Ottoman archive, the Ottoman Bank archive, genealogical data and fieldwork. This has allowed the researchers to detect buildings related directly or indirectly with Glavany family members in Istanbul.
Dr. Koumpouli’s insights regarding the Glavany architectural footprint in Istanbul included specifying neighborhoods where the family and its networks settled and built, and some specific projects. This allowed a detailed discussion that was both conceptual (ideas of eclecticism in architectural preferences, mixed-styles in single properties, and so on) and historical (the contemporaneous 19th-century creation of an architectural academy in Istanbul, and participation of European architects in urban development).
The architect’s examination of buildings, both surviving and non-extant, thus revealed much about late-Ottoman Istanbul. Both the architectural and demographic records indicate it was a much different city than many might at first think—a place filled with a large population of mixed Western-European origin, their summer palaces indicating northern stylings, and a place that lived up to its fabled name as a city with summer mansions filled with sumptuous decorations and gardens, a timeless capital fit for both ambition and entertainment.
The Future Publication, and Four Points of Value
Like every good talk, this one left the listener hungry to know more about the topic. And, though the speakers emphasized the existence of extensive archives mentioning important Glavany-family members, it became more remarkable to note that the Glavanys’ memory is so forgotten in today’s Turkey. Indeed, Dr. Erünal noted that there was public confusion in modern times, when 12 aspiring Glavany descendants from France came to Istanbul, seeking the ruined mansion’s return. Apparently, the municipality has since restored it as a public-access cultural house, for now, which I’d guess is probably for the best. Since municipal renovation, it opened in 2023 under the name Nevmekan Kandilli—one of several other similarly-named repurposed old structures around town.
The current research is ongoing, and will be published in the forthcoming volume, Ottoman Cultural Mobilities: Travel, Imperial Exchange, and Collecting in the Nineteenth Century, (edited by Sibel Zandi-Sayek and Belgin Turan Özkaya, under contract with De Gruyter). The book should be published in 2026.
Generally, I can see at least four points of value for such research. First, it is useful for big-picture history (studies of economic trends, genealogies, etc.); second, for granular historic exploration (the undiscovered history informing specific diplomatic negotiations, etc.); third, architectural history in all its forms; and fourth, as an inspirational and educational basis for historical fiction plots, using some of the lesser-cited, but historically significant, personalities of yesteryear.
About the Levantine Heritage Foundation
An excellent and informed group that specializes in the socio-economic and familial history of the Levantines, from the 16th-20th centuries, the LHF is useful for students and scholars alike. Its website contains much rare data, and its members include academic experts and familial descendants of the Levantines.
The LHF also holds extensive genealogical records of once-illustrious Levantine families in the former Ottoman Empire, Venetian lands, Greece and across the Mediterranean. They have relevant historic works too, and arrange scholarly events such as last evening’s talk. I have enjoyed LHF events for their originality and contributions to both history, and inspiring ideas for historical fiction, which some of my fellow authors might find intriguing as well.
Postscript-How To Watch the Event
The LHF has now made the whole event available on its YouTube channel—check it out here and learn more about this fascinating topic, and future areas to be covered.