The Preservation of Galata’s St. George Explored through Ottoman Documents

Abstract In the predominantly Christian district of Galata, churches were vulnerable to the frequent conflagrations which spread through the wooden buildings that predominated the urban landscape. The Latin Catholic Church of St. George was a victim to three fires during the seventeenth century and one in the early eighteenth century. This study aims to explore this history of the church, the preservation of its properties and of its historical claim to the land in the light of Ottoman documents. The status of the church building and land according to Ottoman law in addition to the processes for the acquisition and preservation of its properties carried out within the Ottoman legal framework will be analysed. The different types of Ottoman documents used in the process for the repair or reconstruction of church properties damaged in the fires from the initial petition presented at the Sublime Porte to the post-construction survey will be touched upon.