Ottoman Bank’s Historical Branch Buildings and Analysis of Today’s Uses

Abstract

In the modern sense, banking activities have started to be carried out in multistorey, ostentatious structures with large square meters due to the low number of branches of the banks. With the development of banking, the images of the buildings rather than their architectural formations have been thrown into the background and the goal of commercial profit has been adopted as a priority. Bank structures in city centers had smaller square meters than today due to this priority. The first structures where modern banking activities were carried out in Turkey were built during the Ottoman State. The aim of this article is to examine the development process and to build inventory of these historical Ottoman Bank Branch Buildings which are still in use as Garanti Bank Branches after the union of Ottoman and Garanti Bank in 2001. These six historical branch structures of the Ottoman Bank currently used as Garanti Bank branches are in Istanbul, Ankara, Samsun, Mersin, Eskisehir, Izmir. The location of the buildings, the old and present plan settlements, the construction and decoration features of the facades and interiors are analysed. The subject has been supported by various sources and plans, drawings and photographs obtained from the Ottoman Bank Museum Archive, along with the fieldwork.