Archive views of Göztepe

Taken as a photo this postcard shows the neighbourhood of Göztepe when it was more country than city. The mansions seen here are now crowded out with the expansion of the city, and sadly most are now unoccupied and gradually decaying.

The Agios Pantelemion Orthodox church of Göztepe / Enopi.

The latin alphabet in this card proves this Orthodox church survived till at least the 1930s.

The church post its conversion to a workshop of headwear. The building was later (late 1950s) demolished to make way for a school, there are a few scattered remains of the cemetery still in the area.

The present day views of this building known as the ‘Ayşe Mayda house’. The school was opened in 1920, initially for Italian orphans that were at the French orphanage of Kula, during the WWI. This building in Göztepe, was run by the Sisters of Charity Catholic Order - Filles de la Charité (information derived from the booklet printed on the occassion of the 50th year in Izmir of the Ivrea Sisters).

This school circa 1927, which had two nuns as Italian teachers (Suor Tommasina and Suor Maddalena), a French teacher and a Turkish one. Unusual for its time, it was a mixed school. Middle back Turkish teacher, left and on the bottom picture, the French teacher (Demoiselle Temenotti she was Italian).

This school circa 1930, looking down the back garden. The school closed down for good around 1934 with the law banning foreign education at primary level to Turkish citizens.

This building by the shore belonged to the Armenian Sivrihisaryan, designed by the architect Andon Gavano. According to author Rauf Beyru, this family owned one of the larger shops in the city. In republican years it was used as the Izmir Governor’s residence, as seen below in the background from a postcard dated 1936.

Click here for views of the Göztepe Catholic Church