I Domenicani nella vita sociale, culturale e architettonica di Istanbul nei primi due secoli del dominio ottomano (1453-1660): evidenze storiche dall'Archivio conventuale dei Domenicani a Galata

Focusing on the church buildings used by the order, this essay explores how the Dominican presence in the Ottoman capital depended on the political and military context of the Early Modern Eastern Mediterranean. Even though losing the monumental 14th-century St. Paul’s Basilica in Galata a short while after 1453, the Preachers were soon granted by the Sublime Porte two Byzantine structures in Edirnekapı, turning them into the only Catholic order within the intramural part of the city. The reason of this unusual concession, which permitted them to extend their area of visibility, was the conquest of Caffa in 1475, a former Genoese possession whose main church was officiated by the same order. Thus, Dominicans became responsible for the Catholics coming from Caffa, resettled by the sultan alongside the Theodosian walls. The two buildings were named respectively St. Mary of Constantinople and St. Nicholas. The former preserved a much-venerated icon from Caffa and the latter was surprisingly destinated both to the Catholic and the Armenian newcomers. In 1636, the aforementioned structures being confiscated, the Dominicans had to relocate permanently to Galata where only a small convent dedicated to St. Peter was established in 1475. Dominicans and Franciscans coexisted in the area from 1636 till the Fire of Galata in 1660, when the latter left the intramural Galata moving their churches to the flourishing Pera hills. Thanks to archive documents, this study discovers how the exceptional and difficult coexistence between the Catholics and Armenians at St. Nicholas was managed and how the presence of different Catholic orders in Istanbul reflected the complex panorama of interrelations between the Ottomans and Western European powers such as France, Venice, Genoa, and Rome.