A family once lived on this slope
Their house stood at the top, their bank just below it. Between the two they built a staircase — to make safer the walk their children took to school each morning. In Pera they kept a guest house, where their visitors were received. For close to a hundred years, the Camondo family's life in Istanbul was spread across this slope.
What could not be carried stayed.
The house stayed, the bank stayed, the guest house stayed. The staircase stayed; for a century the children of the same school have come down the same steps.
1873
A return to Istanbul
Abraham Salomon died in Paris in 1873, at ninety-three. His will asked for one thing: to be brought back to Istanbul. He was. He was buried at Hasköy, in the tomb he had built himself, in a state funeral accompanied by the palace band.
This story does not end with a departure. It closes with a return.