Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ANKARA: Ataturk's Favorite Hotel Still Doomed

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ANKARA: Ataturk's Favorite Hotel Still Doomed

    ATATURK'S FAVORITE HOTEL STILL DOOMED

    Hurriyet Daily News
    Nov 9 2011
    Turkey

    Once home to the most elegants ball of the times, Ataturk's favorite
    Hotel, Tokatlıyan, is now facing an unknown future. Considered as
    a great piece of architecture, the hotel has been waiting for a
    restoration for the last 30 years.

    The 117-year old Tokatlıyan Hotel stands in the middle of Istanbul's
    most crowded Istiklal Street, in Beyoğlu district. DAILY NEWS photo,
    Hasan ALTINIŞIK

    Once a favorite haunt of modern Turkey's founder, Istanbul's legendary
    Tokatlıyan-Pera Hotel continues to face an uncertain future due to
    a lack of plans to renovate the severely dilapidated building.

    "[Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk not only organized balls but also hosted
    his guests at a rich table during tea hours. It is so unfortunate
    that the hotel is now in a ruined state," Professor Afife Batur, a
    scholar on architectural history at Istanbul Technical University,
    recently told the Hurriyet Daily News. "The hotel was a pioneer as
    a building in many ways. The first known hotel posters in Turkey
    belonged to the Tokatlıyan-Pera."

    Considered by scholars to be a significant architectural achievement,
    the Tokatlıyan-Pera is one of the best examples of fin-de-siècle
    architecture in Turkey.

    The hotel belongs to the Uc Horan Armenian Church Foundation, one of
    the richest foundations of Turkey's Armenian community.

    The foundation's administration, which has remained unchanged for
    30 years, has chosen not to adopt any of the numerous renovation
    proposals that have been submitted over the years.

    The hotel was built by Mıgırdic Tokatlıyan, an Ottoman citizen of
    Armenian origin who migrated from the northern province of Tokat
    and adopted the last name Tokatlıyan. The hotel was opened in 1897
    with 160 rooms and hosted a number of celebrities, later becoming a
    favorite of Ataturk.

    Emphasizing the significance of the Tokatlıyan-Pera in regard to
    architecture, Batur said: "It was such a popular building that the
    Orient Express would transport all of Europe's high society and the
    elite to this hotel and elegant balls were held there. These balls
    would generate several stories for the world tabloid press as well
    as the Turkish press."

    Another branch of the Tokatlıyan-Pera called the Tokatlıyan-Therabia
    was situated on the Bosphorus at the exact location of the present-day
    Tarabya Hotel, Batur said.

    Architectural history specialist Dr. Fatma Sedes said the
    Tokatlıyan-Pera was the apple of the eye of Istanbul and European
    elites, as well as other political figures. "It was a unique building
    that left its mark on Istanbul's architecture," she added.

Working...
X