If you are interested in experiencing how a wealthy Laventine family lived in the 19th century, consider paying a visit to the Glavany Mansion in Kandilli.
This mansion was owned by a merchant Levantine Family in the Ottoman Empire who had many estates around İstanbul including a mansion in Moda and apartments in Beyoğlu. A whole street was named after this Laventine family in Beyoğlu. The name of the street dedicated to this family changed its name from Glavany to Kallavi with the Turkification of all street names during the Modern Republic. Within years, the mansion in Kandilli passed to a Turkish and French couple who had no kids. Finally, the Mansion was left to Turkish government in 1953. This beautiful mansion lost all its glory and fell into dire conditions through out the decades.
This was the condition of the Mansion in Kandilli until 2021 when the Üsküdar Municipality had a chance of restoring it and turning it into a cultural center with a cafe, restaurant, library, meeting rooms and co-working spaces.
The Mansion is one of the most beautiful spots of the Bosphorus overlooking the sea of Marmara.
If you want to spend a day far from the madding crowd of İstanbul, reading, dining and working, Glavany Mansion in Kandilli which has been reborn after a beautiful restoration might be the place for you!
I recommend you visit the place in spring to enjoy the beauty of its garden and during a weekday to avoid crowds!
You will see how delightful it must have been living in İstanbul in the 19th century as a wealthy Laventine family overlooking one of the most beautiful views in the world!
