Historical Jewish tomb in Istanbul to be renovated, turned into museum

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

The mausoleum of Abraham Salomon de Kamondo, an Ottoman Jew who made pioneering contributions to urban development and banking in Istanbul, is to be restored and opened as a museum later this month.

The mausoleum restoration is limited, as they will not be able to reverse much of the damage already done, according to one of those working on the restoration team.

“Our initial priority is to prevent further deterioration of the building. Even if the Kamondo family no longer resides here, it is very significant that the mausoleum is still standing,” architect Hayim Beraha recently told Hürriyet Daily News.

Kamondo’s body, buried in 1870 with a state ceremony, was removed by treasure hunters, dismembered, and thrown into a well while the historical structure was turned into a shanty house, said the architect.

“As if that were not enough, historic pieces of marble and grave stones from the tomb were dismantled to be used in the construction of other shanty houses,” he said.

Kamondo was the founder of the first municipal organization in the Ottoman period and led efforts to modernize Istanbul’s urban infrastructure while also helping to develop modern banking.

Kamondo is also known for a spiral-shaped staircase built in his name in Istanbul’s Galata district, the Ottoman Empire’s banking and financial center in the 19th century.

“There are 250 other graves here besides the mausoleum, but the [Jewish] community has no right over them,” Beraha said. “When the highways commission nationalized this area, no lot numbers were drawn up, and thus we have no property rights here.”

Kamondo’s tomb is located right above an Armenian cemetery to the left of the Golden Horn Bridge in the district of Hasköy, an area that has been heavily populated by non-Muslim minorities since Ottoman times. When the Golden Horn Bridge and surrounding roads were being built in 1972, the historical Jewish and Armenian cemeteries there were also nationalized.

Kamondo’s mausoleum is the last of such restoration projects undertaken by the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency. Some 325,000 Turkish Liras were allocated for the tomb’s renovation.

“One would wish we could have tackled this project in a wholesome way and restored the historical cemetery alongside the tomb as well, but that did not happen,” said Mehmet Gürkan, the assistant secretary general of the agency, noting that the municipality also owned a storage space right next to the tomb.

“All settlements, which impede faith and culture tourism, must be removed. This structure is an extremely important spot in Istanbul for faith tourism,” Gürkan said.

The project has been sponsored by Turkey’s Jewish community and the Istanbul 2010 agency.

via Historical Jewish tomb in Istanbul to be renovated, turned into museum – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review.