Alexander Vallaury

Who was Alexander Vallaury?

Alexander Vallaury was a French-Ottoman architect, who founded architectural education and lectured in the School of Fine Arts in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire.

He was born 1850 into a Levantine family in Istanbul. His father, Francesco Vallaury, was a renowned pastrycook, respected much in the court circles. The nationality of Alexander is not exactly known, however, it is assumed that he is of French extraction due to his affinity to French culture.

Alexander Vallaury spent his time between 1869 and 1878 in Paris, France, where he studied architecture at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Returned 1880 to Istanbul, he met Osman Hamdi Bey, who was at that time curator of the newly established "Empire Museum", which is today Istanbul Archaeology Museum, during an exhibition of his relief drawings of various architectural monuments. The two artists worked closely in the fields of archaeology, museum work and education in fine arts.

Following the foundation of the first School of Fine Arts in Turkey on January 1, 1882, Alexander Vallaury was appointed with the establishment of the architecture department of the school, which is today Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts.