türkçe links to original Turkish article
(Hürriyet Newspaper, 4 January 2021)
The Cordova family emigrated from Spain's Iberian peninsula to
Istanbul in 1492. In 1922, Moşe Cordova, the musician son of
Rabbi Nesim Cordova, had the Cordova Brothers Apartment built
on Meşrutiyet Avenue. The building's elevator was made by the
Italian firm Stigler and brought to Istanbul by ship.
Because Moşe Cordova wanted a special elevator, one of the rare
clocks made by Gustav Becker's clock firm, founded in 1847, was
installed in the elevator cabin. After the Cordova family migrated
to Israel in 1948, many other families took up residence in Istanbul's
only building with a clock-installed elevator.
Architect Seda Özen Bilgili, who has prepared a documentary about
Istanbul's historic buildings, noticed that the clock in the Cordova
Brothers Apartment building elevator was not working so she contacted
Recep Gürgen (74), known in Turkey as the "palace watchmaker", to
have the clock restored and put back in the elevator cabin.
Gürgen noted that "in those days, people would look at a clock when
leaving home but wristwatches weren't widely worn. So this clock
was placed in the elevator cabin thanks to the caring thoughtfulness
(of the Cordova family)."
Architect Bilgili explained that "I've looked at many historic buildings
and this is the only one I've seen with a clock in the elevator cabin. The
building residents told me that the clock hasn't worked for years so,
with the support of the Beyoğlu City Council, I had the clock repaired.
It is the first restoration of the clock in 100 years because the residents
weren't interested in having it fixed."
View of the Golden Horn from Meşrütiyet Avenue back
in the day.
