ITALIAN INSTITUTION TO RESTORE DOLMABAHcE PALACE CLOCK TOWER

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
June 23 2008

Parliament signed a protocol on Monday with Italy’s trade center and
Assorestauro (Art Restoration Association) to restore the clock tower
of Ä°stanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace.

Parliament Secretary-General Ali Osman Koca said Italian artists
had previously restored several parts of Dolmabahce Palace and that
cooperation with them would continue.

Koca said Sultan Abdulmecit had ordered the construction of Dolmabahce
Palace and that the palace was one of the most important buildings
in the modernization period of the Ottoman Empire.

Dolmabahce Palace was the first European-style palace in Ä°stanbul
and was built between 1842 and 1853, at a cost of 5 million Ottoman
gold liras, the equivalent of 35 tons of gold. Fourteen tons of gold
in the form of gold leaf were used to gild the ceilings of the palace.

The clock tower was constructed by Armenian architect Sarkis Balyan
between 1890 and 1895. The clock tower was added to Dolmabahce Palace
and stands in front of its Treasury Gate on a square along the European
waterfront of the Bosporus next to Dolmabahce Mosque.

Designed in Ottoman neo-baroque style, the four-sided, four-storey
tower stands at a height of 27 meters. Its clock was manufactured
by the French clockmaker house of Jean-Paul Garnier and installed
by court clock master Johann Mayer. In 1979 the original mechanical
clock was converted partly to an electrical one.

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