figure 1.2 Mehmet Kapancı villa, Thessaloníki. Photo by author.
Hansen and Austrian baroque styles; this building could be referred to
as having a Turkish baroque style. Mehmet Kapancı had hired Arigoni
to design his art nouveau villa, Château Mon Bonheur (My Happi-
ness), with its neo-Gothic and neo-Moorish elements, two years earlier
(fig. 1. 2 ). The two villas rival each other in splendor.^45
A photograph taken in the first decade of the twentieth century on
the steps of Ahmet Kapancı’s villa shows the Kapancı clan wearing the
latest western European fashions. Ahmet Kapancı stands at the top of
the stairs, left hand in the trouser pocket of his three-piece suit, pulling
his suit jacket back and showing the gold chain of his pocket watch.
He is bareheaded, and his Panama hat, doubtless meant to be out of
view of the camera, sits on the railing in the corner of the photo. Next
to him stands a young man in a fez and a three-piece suit, and next to
him is a man in a bowler (derby) hat, which signified membership in
the professional class. The three men stand above four elegantly dressed
women, including an impressive matriarch, some wearing ornate hats,
and a young boy.
Ottoman Salonika