Collecting, Preserving, Restoring, and Displaying the Ottoman Architectural Heritage of the Balkans in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century

Session Submission Type: Panel

Affiliate Organization: Society of Historians of East European and Russian Art & Architecture

Brief Description

In recent decades several scholars have focused on the way various type of Ottoman buildings in the Balkans have been nationalised, neglected or destroyed since the mid 19th century with the formation of new nation-states in search of unique identities (Marinov, Hardtmuth, Popescu, Hajdu, and others). However, they remain exceptional, most of them focusing on single case-study, without a sufficient comparative and transnational perspective on a phenomenon characteristic of a wide region, beyond nation-states borders. The ways in which Ottoman baths, merchant houses with geamlâc, şahnişin or trilobed arches, orthodox churches with Ottoman decorations, specific chairs, cushions, curtains have survived (or not), were reused and reinterpreted in the modern period remains not enough known or understood. The four papers will present different cases of survival of the Ottoman architecture and decorations, through creation of national architectural styles, restoration of monuments, merchant houses, interior design, holiday villas, country houses. In this way they will move beyond national frameworks and provide a liberating perspective on the way communities and artists continued or reinterpreted the Ottoman heritage in the post-Ottoman period. The presenters have different expertise and will focus on Western Balkans, Romania, Hungary, including Transylvania. In addition, the discussant is an expert on Bulgarian heritage. In the context of the ASEEES Annual Convention, the Ottoman heritage of Eastern Europe is a topic that will complement the usual focus on the Soviet Union and the Habsburg Empire.

Sub Unit

• Arts I: Visual Culture, Material Culture, Applied and Fine Arts

Chair

• Doina Anca Cretu, University of Warwick (UK)

Papers

• Overcoming the Ottoman Heritage: Restoration and Preservation of Monuments in Early 20th Century Romania - Cosmin Tudor Minea, Masaryk U (Czech Republic)

• Early Vernacular Cosmopolitanism and the Hungarian Plea for Revisiting Ottoman-Turkish Architecture - Deodáth Zuh, Eszterházy Károly Catholic U (Hungary)

• From Banyabaşı to Bath Square: Thermal Water, Space, and Place in the Making of Post-Ottoman Sofia - Stefan Peychev, Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (Bulgaria)

Discussant

• Seraina Renz, Masaryk U (Czech Republic)