Xander van Eck
I am a Dutch art historian specialized in Netherlandish religious art of the Early Modern Era. I teach at the Faculty of Architecture of Izmir Institute of Technology
Phone: +905301740570
Address: Faculty of Architecture
Izmir Institute of Technology
Phone: +905301740570
Address: Faculty of Architecture
Izmir Institute of Technology
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The former so-called Dutch Chapel and the current Agia Photini Greek Church in the Alsancak neighbourhood of Izmir dates from 1906. It is currently rented out as a Greek Orthodox church, since there are not enough protestant Dutchmen in the city anymore to sustain a continuous religious activity whereas the Dutch protestant community has been worshipping in Izmir since the beginning of the seventeenth century. In the beginning, this happened in the house of the Dutch consul; after the earthquake of 1678, a separate chapel was built adjacent to the consul”s residency. In the nineteenth century, a new chapel was integrated in the building of the nearby Dutch Hospital.
The aim of this paper is to describe the history and architecture of the subsequent spaces where the gatherings took place. As Philip Mansel describes in his Levant. Splendour and catastrophe in the Mediterranean (2010), foreign churches enjoyed a remarkable freedom in the Levantine trade cities like Aleppo, Smyrna and Beirut, a situation the Dutch protestants could also take advantage of. But the amount of tolerance that these churches were granted by the local authorities and the degree of visibility they could have, had to be negotiated. The notion of crossculturality, introduced by Merlijn Olnon in his dissertation “Brought under the law of the land”: The history, demography and geography of crossculturalism in Early Modern Izmir, and the Köprülü Project of 1678 may help us understand the nature of the subsequent buildings and their interiors.
The history of the Dutch protestant community and its vicars has been documented extensively by J. W. Samberg in his book about the Dutch Reformed community in Smyrna (Leiden 1928), but he did not devote many words to the church architecture itself; even the exact location and the layout of their interiors the subsequent spaces is not specified in his publication. Establishing those facts, as far as possible, will be one of the main building stones of this paper. The others are, as mentioned before, the general history of the Levantine communities and their religion as described by Mansel and others, and more specifically the interaction between Levantine tradespeople and the Ottoman authorities in Izmir; for this aspect, we will mostly rely on Olnon. Finally we will present the process of the transformation of this church from a Dutch chapel to a Greek basilica in the 20th century which is a unique case in the entire eastern Mediterranean.
Main references
ANDERSON, S.P., An English Consul in Turkey. Paul Rycaut at Smyrna, 1667-1678 (Oxford 1989).
M.H. van den Boogert en K. Fleet (red.), The Ottoman Capitulations. Text and Context, Rome 2004.
C. de Bruyn, Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn, door de vermaardste deelen van Klein Asia, de eylanden Scio, Rhodus, Cyprus, Metelino, Stanchio, etc. Mitsgeders de voornaamste steden van Ægypten, Syrien en Palestina, verrijkt met meer als 200. kopere konstplaaten, vertoonende de beroemdste landschappen, steden, etc. Alles door den autheur selfs na het leven afgetekend (Delft, Hendrik van Kroonevelt, 1698) https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bruy004reiz03_01/
Colin, A., “Les Néerlandais et le marché monétaire levantin dans la seconde moitié du XVII e siècle (1648-1701)”, Histoire, Économie et Société, Vol. 27, No. 2 (2008), pp. 21-38.
EEN EN ANDER OMTRENT ONZE PREDIKANTEN TE SMIRNA IN DE 2 E HELFT DER 17 E EEUW Author(s): W. E. VAN DAM VAN ISSELT Source: Nederlands archief voor kerkgeschiedenis / Dutch Review of Church History, NIEUWE SERIE, Vol. 13, No. 1 (1916), pp. 81-112.
Droffelaar, J. van, “Flemish Fathers in the Levant. Dutch Protection of Three Fransiscan Missions in the 17th and 18th Centuries,” in: Van Gelder and De Moor 1994, pp. 81-113.
Geert Jan van Gelder and Ed de Moor, ed., Eastward Bound, Amsterdam and Atlanta: Editions 6 Rodopi B.V., 1994.
Goffmann, D., Izmir and the Levantine World, Seattle and London 1990.
Groot, A.H. de, The Ottoman Empire and The Dutch Republic. A History of the Earliest Diplomatic Relations 1610 – 1630 (Leiden 1978).
Hasselt, L. Van, tekst over Directeuren Levantse Handel in Stadhuis op de Dam, https://www.onsamsterdam.nl/tijdschrift/jaargang-2012/1396-nummer-4-april-2012?start=5
Hayden, J.A., “Cornelis de Bruyn: Painter, Traveler, Curiosity Collector—Spy?”, in: J. A. Hayden and N. I. Matar (eds.), Through the Eyes of the Beholder : The Holy Land, 1517-1713, Leiden (Brill) 2002, 141-164.
Heylen, S., Kunst in de Levant : de collecties van de Nederlandse families De Hochepied en Van Lennep in Smyrna, (2007) Faculty of Humanities Theses.
Hoenkamp-Mazgon, M., Palais de Hollande in Istanbul. The Embassy and Envoys of the Netherlands since 1612, Amsterdam 2002.
Mansel, P., Levant. Splendour and Catastrophe in the Mediterranean, New Haven and London, 2010.
Du Mont, Reyzen van de heer Du Mont door de grootste gedeeltens van Europa en Asia. (Utrecht, A. Schouten, 1699) 380-381.
Olnon, M., “Nederland-Turkije, 1675-1678. Vier jaar op het snijpunt van Gouden Eeuw en moderniteit,” De Zeventiende Eeuw 29 (2013), 3-18.
Olnon, M., “Brought under the Law of the Land”: The History, Demography and Geography of Crossculturalism in Early Modern Izmir, and the Köprülü Project of 1678, 2014.
M.A. Perk, De Nederlandsche Protestantsche Gemeente te Smyrna, Leiden 1910.
Samberg, J.W., De Hollandsche gereformeerde gemeente te Smirna. De geschiedenis van eener handelskerk, Leiden 1928.
Schmidt, J. (ed.), Nederland in Turkije/ Turkije in Nederland, Leiden 2012.
Yılmaz, F (ed.), Levantines. From Past to Present, Izmir 2011.
Web sources
http://www.gahetna.nl/collectie/archief/ead/index/eadid/1.02.22/anchor/descgrp-appendices-odd/open/c01:0.#c01:0.
https://www.dodenakkers.nl/artikelen-overzicht/buitenland/protestantse-kerkhof-in-izmir.html
http://www.bijbelseplaatsen.nl/plaatsen/S/Smyrna%20/Nederl%20kerkje/832/
https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=HwBNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA169&lpg=PA169&dq=Nederlanders+Smyrna&source=bl&ots=DFyrV7x7iW&sig=K9wCHwKh9BZ08V-
FMj63XO2tAf4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjDn87BytPfAhUS3aQKHbKGB1U4ChDoATABegQICBAB#v=onepage&q=Nederlanders%20Smyrna&f=false
https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=jDNB294N7AcC&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=GROOT,+A.H.+DE,+The+Ottoman+Empire+and+the+Dutch+Republic.+A+history+of+the+Earliest+Diplomatic+Relations+1610-1630+(Leiden+1978)&source=bl&ots=np9-ZnmIF-&sig=tjKvMyfA3THpCHVW_9_hUOqTscg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwik55X6z9PfAhUS2qQKHXx8D-44ChDoATABegQICRAB#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://www.levantineheritage.com/pdf/Consuls-of-Smyrna-Their-Place-in-the-City.pdf