Abstract

Sopon Bezirdjian (1839-1915) was an Armenian subject of the Ottoman Empire, born in Constantinople. He spent his earlier professional life designing the decorative programs for the palaces of Sultan Abdülaziz (r.1861–76), such as Beylerbeyi (1865) and Çırağan (1871), which were built under the management of the architect Serkis Balyan. This essay draws attention to legacy of Sopon, which has been virtually written out of the historiography. In contrast to recent interpretations that foreground cosmopolitanism, this essay stresses the Armenian nature of the teams that were responsible for these works of the 1860s to 70s and starts to place the role of Sopon within these teams. It also, through looking at Sopon’s archive of drawings, investigates Sopon’s engagement with his Ottoman, Armenian and the European (he moved to England around 1880) sides to his identity and shows how Armenian aspects were increasingly coming to the foreground as political strains increased. This essay puts forward the case for the highlighting the Armenian-ness behind the crafting of late Ottoman architecture and for the centrality of this working milieu to later communal transformations.