Today the Palazzo Venezia serves as the residence of the Italian ambassador. The building and its site represent a rich palimpsest, on which centuries of diplomatic relations between a variety of Mediterranean states have left their mark: not just the Venetian republic, but also the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, Italy and Turkey. After two and half centuries of existence as a substantially Ottoman, wooden house, a remarkable Bailo to Constantinople, Andrea Memmo (1729-1793), decided to transform this landmark into a Palladian villa. While construction followed a local vernacular based on timber frames, Memmo also drew on Venetian expertise in maritime woodcraft.

ENNO AND PAOLO IN THE PALAZZO VENEZIA

In this conversation, recorded on 20 October 2023, Paolo Girardelli guides us along a rich historical seam, following the palazzo’s construction, renovation, destruction and rebirth as the vehicle for invented traditions of Italianità, as architectural pomp and geopolitical power gradually began to intersect in late Ottoman Constantinople.

VIEW OF AYAZ PASA AND THE WOODEN RESIDENCE CONSTRUCTED BY ITALIAN AMBASSADOR ALBERTO BLANC AROUND 1890 (LATER PARK OTEL), INSPIRED BY THE OLD, LATE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PALAZZO VENEZIA.

After 1815 the building became a Habsburg embassy, and when the Italian state reacquired the building in 1919 it encountered a building essentially Austrian. To stress a continuity between the Italian nation-state and the Venetian empire, relief sculptures featuring the Lion of St. Mark as well as portraits of former bailos were introduced to the building, once again known as the Palazzo Venezia. Paolo weaves the story of the Palazzo’s evolution with that of the development of Constantinople and especially Pera, the bulwark of culture, economy and diplomacy in the late Ottoman Empire, and shifting geopolitical configurations in Europe and the Mediterranean region.

DETAIL OF PALAZZO VENEZIA FROM JACQUES PERVITCH’S INSURANCE MAP.

Episode 43 – The Lion Returns

Podcasts are published by TLP for the purpose of encouraging informed debate on the legacies of the events surrounding the Lausanne Conference. The views expressed by participants do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of TLP, its partners, convenors or members.

MAIN IMAGE: VENETIAN LION AT PALAZZO VENEZIA, ACQUIRED BY CARLO SFORZA FROM VENETIAN ARCHAEOLOGIST LUIGI CONTON.