The first half of the 1900s... Grande Rue de Pera, İstiklal Caddesi today... Model T Fords puff along next to the tramline. Stylishly dressed men carrying bouquets and Excelsior umbrellas wait for their sweethearts in front of the mirrored arcade. Or is the matinee about to begin at the Atlas Cinema? The ladies have donned their most beautiful hats, clearly they are going to Markiz after the show... Who has sewn their gowns? Madame Fegara, or was it Kaluvrisi? Toto Karaca, who played Irma in the operetta ’Sürreya’, has opened a little theater known as the Muhsin Ertuğrul Küçük Sahne. Only the best plays make up its repertoire: Of Mice and Men, Waiting for Godot... At Turkuvaz and Rejans dinner is served to the accompaniment of dance music. It’s the golden age of the wineshops and poetry, that sine qua non. Orhan Veli pens his best ones at Nisuaz. And the air is sweet with the scent of lavender! 

CHANGING BEYOGLU 

Pera was the city’s most popular district during the Tanzimat period of reforms. In the first years of the Republic as well, it was the heart of entertainment, shopping, culture and art. Then the Second World War, the 6-7th September incidents and the wealth tax take their toll, and the dressmaker and tailoring establishments and shops selling imported goods close one by one like falling leaves. Turkish women appear now in their ’Little Lady’ outfits. Shopping and entertainment habits change, arcades are abandoned to their fate, the mirrored arcade known as Şark Aynalı Pasaj (Passage Orientale), for example. Built in the 1840s, this arcade was renovated in 1908 in Neoclassical style. Originally it was a T-shaped passage without a roof, like a narrow street lined with shops on either side, with one entrance on Asmalımescit and another on İstiklal Street. Its respectable establishments included Polonezköy, a famous charcuterie of the day, Le Restaurant Passage Oriental, the dressmaker Terzi Mulieri, the notions merchant Kalagas, and Kristich, the favored coiffeur of the ladies of Pera... 

Since a hat was de rigueur at Markiz there was of course a milliner as well. Markiz, which was located in a corner of the Şark Aynalı Pasaj in 1940, was a meeting place especially for the intelligentsia. Who was not on its list of regulars! The banker Mavro Cordato, Ziya Pasha, Namık Kemal, Misbah Muayyeş, owner of the Pera Palas Hotel, Said Nahum Duhani, the ambassador to Paris, Yahya Kemal, Pierre Loti, Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Ebuzziya Tevfik, Yunus Nadi, Salah Birsel, Çelik Gülersoy, Burhan Felek, Haldun Taner, Mehmet Ali Aybar, Adalet Cimcoz... Markiz had originally opened under the name Lebon in the middle of the 19th century, and the man who opened it was none other than Eduard Lebon, former pastry chef of the French Ambassador, General Horaci Debastiani. By the 1940s the Lebon family had turned the shop over to Kosta Litopoulus, who had put in many years there as apprentice, supervisor and, finally, chef. Soon Lebon would move to its new location on the opposite side of İstiklal Street, and Markiz would take its place at no. 362. Avedis Ohanyan, who began operating at this historic location in 1942, called his patisserie Markiz because he aspired to capture the quality of the Paris-made ’Marquise de Sevigne’ chocolates in the ‘Leumenier’ brand chocolate oven he had imported specially from Paris. 

THE STREET’S MOST RESPECTABLE PASTRY SHOP 

The pastry shop is the work of Alexandre Vallaury, who is also the architect of the Pera Palas Hotel. The ‘art nouveau’ faience panels, signed by Arnaux, which were mounted at the beginning of the 1920s, were originally four in number: L’Automne, L’Hiver, Le Printemps, and L’Ete. The fate of two, L’Hiver and L’Ete, of these matchless panels made in 1905 is unknown. Rumour has it that they were broken en route. The glass pastry cases and wood-panelled walls are the creations of decorator Ibrahim Sarfiyef. Meanwhile the highly ornamental plaster moldings on the ceiling were commissioned in 1945 to an Armenian craftsman by the name of Cezerliyan, and the windows overlooking the arcade bear the signature of Mazhar Resmor. Markiz’s caramels, chocolates, candies and special pastries were served on Limoges and Havilland china at the five o’clock teas frequented by Istanbul’s most fashionable ladies in an elegant setting complemented by Degugis crystal and Christofle silver. Markiz was the most respectable patisserie on the street, until 1970 when it was sold to a dealer in automobile spare parts. That was the beginning of the end. Haldun Taner launched an intensive campaign in his newspaper column and, with the added pressure of public opinion, the Higher Commission for Antiquities and Monuments decided in 1977 to preserve the establishment with its original decor. In 1980 the entire arcade was closed. 

MARKIZ AGAIN SEES THE LIGHT OF DAY 

Following a sleep of exactly 23 years, Markiz is once again welcoming the people of Istanbul. 

The Şark Aynalı Çarşı hasre-opened its doors as ‘Passage Markiz’. After lengthy efforts, the Aksoy Group, which purchased the building ten years ago, has restored this cultural symbol to Beyoglu. Architects Hüseyin Başçetinçelik and Ali Çiçek, who undertook the restoration, took pains to remain faithful to the original plan while carrying out the project. The ceiling decorations added at different periods in Markiz’s history were uncovered layer by layer and brought to the light of day. 

The show windows and the vestiaire at the entrance are once again as they were. 

From chandeliers and chairs to chocolate boxes, many original items were brought together in a campaign to turn Markiz into a museum. 

Yesterday’s mirrored arcade, the Passage Markiz is a nostalgic venue today where shopping goes hand in hand with entertainment. The glass and mirrors repeated in the arcade reflect that familiar atmosphere. MonMarkiz, which sells chocolates and other items bearing the Markiz trademark, luxury shops with branches in Etiler and Nişantaşı, and popular bars and cafes have long since taken their places on its floors. With its sparkle and glow, the Passage Markiz is clearly going to bring a spanking new human dimension to Beyoglu.