Images open for investigation

This page is intended to showcase images where feedback from readers may help illuminate more the history connected with Levantine Heritage. Feel free to respond and feel free to send your images where the story, persons and places to be identified could be helped by community engagement.

December 2023 - Mystery Moda Levantine gathering Istanbul, 1910s?

Could anybody recognise any of the individuals?

September 2023 - Mystery Catholic school Istanbul, 1930s

My father Andrea Caruana was born in Constantinople in 1925 and, together with his elder brother Josef, attended a school run by Italian nuns in the 1930s. I have in my possession three large school photos of different years and I would like to know more about this school and possible class-mates, this top photo is the only one with a date on its back, April 1933. When the family left Turkey Andrea and his brother were still young boys. They were baptised in the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul and most probably used to live around the area of Galata - Victoria Hampton. - family tree of the Caruana family - selection of family photos. The young Andrea Caruana is indicated with a green mark on this photo. Andrea’s brother Josef can also be identified in the top photo just behind the nun sitting in the middle, and to the right of Andrea in the other two images.

Andrea Caruana indicated.

Andrea Caruana indicated.

Photographer’s studio stamp on on the back.

August 2023 - Mystery group photo Istanbul, 1925

S.E. (I think Attilio) Serra was in Istanbul as the Italian delegate to the International Straits Commission established in the context of the 1923 Lausanne Treaty in order to solve the International Maritime Law issues with the new Republic of Turkey, which eventually finalized in the 1936 Montreux convention. The photo is dated 1925.
Regarding the other figures:
2) As far as I know there was a ‘Principe [Prince] Cito di Filomarino (not Villamarino)’ with Napoli background, but even if it was him I have no idea of what he may be doing in 1925 in Istanbul..., 3) Şükrü Naili Gökberk, 4) I have no idea what the ‘poet’ Fausto Salvatori (Rome 1870 - Rome 1929) was doing there, but he had no relevant ‘Levantine’ connections as far as I know... information courtesy of Luis Miguel Selvelli.

July 2023 - Mystery active Catholic School Smyrna, 1924

This postcard sent on the 24th December 1924 is 2 years and 3 months after the Great Fire of Smyrna by a priest in a school in Smyrna not specified. The image of the postcard is published by Sebah and Joaillier photographers and the lineup of priests could be from an earlier time and also possibly not Smyrna but Constantinople. The clue could be in the internal architecture of the building, if one of our readers can help?

The text of the postcard is interesting as it states that after six months (presumably after the Great Fire) the school was allowed to reopen by Turkish authorities, so pointing to a sufficient student body at this early date and the name of the priest teacher is hard to make out, Fre Theodole Paulin? (he appears to have marked himself in the photo with a red cross). Help in identifying this person and hence the school concerned would be appreciated.

Info courtesy of Guido Buldrini, September 2023: Such a large number of religious people (just under 90) cannot refer to a single school and certainly does not refer to Smyrna, given that the photographer is from Istanbul (or rather from Constantinople because we are in 1924 or before). We are not talking about priests but about Brothers of the Christian Schools (FSC) or De La Salle Brothers. I can add that in 1923 they had their General Chapter, I believe in Belgium where the Generalate was, and that Br. Theodole Paulin, who signed the postcard, is one of the founders of the St. Joseph’s College in Salonica / Thessaloniki in Greece - possible school image?.