Istanbul’s Greek Orthodox Orphanage requires €40 million restoration

The leading European heritage organization Europa Nostra and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Institute stated in a recently issued report that a restoration of the Prinkipo Greek Orthodox orphanage in Istanbul would cost at least 40 million euros, according to greekreporter.com.

Moreover, the ambitious project would take four to five years to complete, according to the report, which was released on July 29.

“There are many caveats and uncertainties making it impossible to provide a reasonable and fair estimate of the full project costs. However, on the basis of the opinions expressed by several external experts, it is reasonable to expect the project to require a total investment of at least 40 million [euros] (a figure that, depending on many factors, could be much higher)” the report notes.

The document also points out, nevertheless, that the restoration “would generate a considerable employment during construction (likely within the range of 250-300 persons per year).”

The Greek orphanage is thought to be the largest wooden building in all of Europe, and the second-largest in the entire planet. The structure is located on Büyükada (Prinkipo in Greek), which is the largest of the Princes’ Islands off the coast of Istanbul.

The report from the Europa Nostra and EIB Institute comes as the result of a three-day mission to Turkey on May 29-31, as well as a structural report produced by Clive Dawson, a structural engineer with wide-ranging experience in historic buildings, who visited the site in April, 2019.

“As far as the site is currently abandoned to decay, an immediate preliminary intervention should be quickly designed, planned and implemented to protect the buildings from further deterioration,” the report recommends.

The organization and the EIB also noted that the Istanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarch would be responsible for raising the necessary funds for financing the main repair work and to carry out the implementation of the project, since it is the legal owner of the site.

The impressive, five-story orphanage has several wings, which accommodate a total of 206 rooms. The building was designed by the French architect Alexandre Vallaury in 1899. It functioned as an orphanage until its closure in 1964, but has been empty and used for no other purpose ever since that time.

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