By the turn of the twentieth century, Alexandria had established a reputation as Egypt's commercial and financial capital and the square of El-Tahrir or El Manshieh is considered the main commercial district of the Alexandrian city center.
3-2-1- History of the square “place d’armes”:
Francesco Mancini’s early involvement in 1820 with ibrahim basha’s own private developments, including the Okalle Neuve, the first and most important commercial building on the grand place -known as place d’armes- possibly influenced his cession in transforming the character and function of the square from a military exercise and parade ground to its new commercial entity “plan of the square figures (1-36)& (1-37)”.
Fig (3-19) Old postcards of Place des Consuls in late 19th century also known as Place d' Armes, place Mohamed Ali, Manshieh and Liberation square. Source: (www.flicr.com )
Mohamed Ali Square, formerly known as the place des Consuls, and the adjacent Sherif Street, presently Salah Salem Street, were the seat of the Stock Exchange and many bank premises: the Anglo-Egyptian Bank, Lioyds Bank, the Bank of Athens and the elegant Banco di Roma designed by Henri Gorra in 1905 and inspired by the Palazzo Farnese in Rome.
Fig (3-20) Photos of Place des Consuls in late 19th century also known as Place d' Armes, place Mohamed Ali, Manshieh and Liberation square. Source: (www.flicr.com )
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For the design of the new buildings on the square, Mancini adapted a traditional typology of the okalle, whose ground spaces, grouped round an open court, were usually reserved for commercial uses. The upper floors served as residences. These new rectilinear block developments introduced within a street grid pattern and a newly adopted neo-c1assical language marked the new order and lingua franca of the young cosmopolitan city. Such a change was certainly a contrast to and a defiance of an already existing and well-established organic order that had characterized the indigenous quarters of the Ottoman city.
Fig (3-21) Panoramic view of Manshieh and Liberation square showing the court building “Mixed Tribunals”.
Fig (3-22) Panoramic view of Manshieh and Liberation square showing “Okalle Menasce”.
Source: (www.archnet.org )
Because the new urban spaces around this square reflected both the power and wealth of the vicarage family, and the growing influence of the foreign consuls, the square was renamed Place des Consuls. More importantly, the new urban: space was embellished with an obelisk in its center, and with fountains and music kiosks, and was surrounded with hotels, cafe concerts, and restaurants. All this reflected a newly adopted life style similar to those of the great European cities. Yet in the mind's eye of many travelers, as apparent from their description, the character of the city remained to a great extent quite eclectic.
Fig (3-23) Photos of “Manshieh square” showing the status of “Mohamed Ali” and Parking area.
Source: (www.archnet.org )
3-2-2- Current Situation of “Ahmed Orabi & Manshieh Squares”:
The square that used to contain the city's elitist residences, have been more recently transformed into cultural centers, banks, and government and administrative offices. Despite a few individual attempts to preserve some of these buildings, a more effective approach of listing the buildings and preserving their collective character, while preventing further deterioration or destruction, remains of the highest priority.
Fig (3-24) Part of Alexandria’s Google earth map showing “Manshieh Square”(A), “Ahmed Orabi Square” (B), and the places of the Italian building in the squares; (1) Okalle Monferato, (2) Mixed Tribunals, (3) Okalle
Menasce, (4) Waqf Yacoub Dahan, (5) Cotton Palace, (6) Ismail Monument (unknown soldier).
At present the square include some old buildings among them there is five Italian buildings, and those building suffer from the same problems as all the ancient city center buildings at Alexandria, The next part will explain the current conditions of those building.
3-2-2-1- Okalle Monferato:
The Okalle is a type of buildings modeled on the concepts of Milanian Galleria where the ground floor contains commercial activities and the residence at the upper floors and the building contain large open court that include most of its activities.
Okalle Monferato designed by Luigi Piattoli (1887) was one of the biggest grand commercial building that still exist “plans and elevations of the building figures (1-41)”, the exterior of the building is quite in good conditions but the problem is the shop windows and commercial signs that disfigure the building as shown in the next photos.
Fig (3-25) Photos of ‘Okalle Monferato” at Manshieh square designed by Luigi Piattoli (1887).
Source: (Photos by the researcher & Awad, Mohamed F. "Italy in Alexandria" p.362)
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Fig (3-26) Photos of disfiguring the building façade by the shop windows and commercial signs.
Source: (Photos by the researcher)
Fig (3-27) Photos of the structural problems at the top Cornish and the side elevation.
Source: (Photos by the researcher)
Fig (3-28) Photos of the bad conditions of the internal court due to lack of cleaning, damaged plumping systems, electric and phone connections and lack of maintenance . Source: (Photos by the researcher)
The Italian Architecture in Alexandria, Egypt (the conservation of the Italian residential buildings)
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Fig (3-29) Photos of the iron dome that cover the main court, all the glass were removed and the iron suffer from corrosion . Source: (Photos by the researcher)
Fig (3-30) Photos of the interventions by the users by adding some coverings at the main court because of the original covering dome is not functioning. Source: (Photos by the researcher)
3-2-2-2- Mixed Tribunals
The imposing seat of the Mixed Tribunals in 1887 now called “El-Hakaneia palace” was designed in the Beaux Arts tradition by Alfonso Maniscalco Bey, and Augusto Cesarias was its structural engineer “plans and elevations of the building figures (1-40)”. The building is a government property and it is still used as a court, Most of the main façade of the building are in good conditions but the side facades suffer from some degradations and need restoration and maintenance.
Fig (3-31) Photos of “Mixed Tribunals” at Manshieh square designed by Antonio Maniscalco Bey, 1887.
Source: (Photos by www.archnet.org & the researcher)
Fig (3-32) Photos of the side facades that suffer from degradation. Source: (Photos by the researcher)
3-2-2-3- Okalle Menasce:
The other grand commercial Italian building at the square is Okalle Menasce designed in (1885) by Antonio Lasciac who worked for the Societe des Immeubles d' Egypte, owners of the building “plans and elevations of the building figures (1-44)”.
The building also like “Okalle Monferato” is suffering from the disfigure due to the shop windows and commercial signs, The main façade had some degradations and also the internal facades on the main court suffer from problems.
Fig (3-33) Photos of “Okalle Menasce” at Manshieh square by Antonio Lasciac (1885).
Source: (Photos by the researcher)
The Italian Architecture in Alexandria, Egypt (the conservation of the Italian residential buildings)
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Fig (3-34) Photos of disfiguring the building Entrance, main façade, Back one and the Internal court by the shop windows and commercial signs. Source: (Photos by the researcher)
Fig (3-35) Photos of the deterioration in the internal façade on the main court . Source: (Photos by the researcher)
Fig (3-36) Photos of damage and degradation of the wooden roof of the staircase and the sky light covering it.
Source: (Photos by the researcher)
3-2-2-4- Waqf Yacoub Dahan:
This residential building was designed and built by the industrial building company of Egypt from (1907-1912) by architect H.Gorra bey, the building suffer from the deformation due to the commercial mall in the ground floor, air conditions at the side facades and also the adding of some constructions randomly on the roof, also the two domes at the top corners of the façade suffer from degradation and deformation.
Fig (3-37) Old photo of “Waqf Yacoub Dahan” by H.Gorra bey. Source: (Photos by Awad, Mohamed F.
"Italy in Alexandria" p.165)
Fig (3-38) Photos of current situation of “Waqf Yacoub Dahan” at Manshieh.
Source: (Photos by the researcher)
Fig (3-39) Photos of disfiguring the building façade by the shop windows, air conditions and commercial signs.
Source: (Photos by the researcher)
The Italian Architecture in Alexandria, Egypt (the conservation of the Italian residential buildings)
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Fig (3-40) Photos of the constructions added on the roof and the bad conditions of the upper domes at the corners. Source: (Photos by the researcher)
3-2-2-5- Ismail Monument (unknown soldier):
This monument was called the monument of Ismail il Magnifico and was sculpted by Pietro Canonica (1927- 1938), the Italian contractor was De Farro Contractors. After the 1952 revolution the statue of Khedive Ismail was removed and the monument was renamed to the unknown soldier Monument.
Fig (3-41) Photos of the original and current state of “Ismail Monument” or the unknown soldier Monument sculpted by Pietro Canonica 1927.
Source: (Photos by the researcher & Awad, Mohamed F. "Italy in Alexandria" p.197)
Notes:
1. Awad, Mohamed F. “Italy in Alexandria: influences on the built environment”, Alexandria preservation trust, Alexandria, Egypt,2008.
2. Awad, Mohamed F. "Italian Influence on Alexandria's Architecture (1834-1985)." Environmental Design: Journal of the Islamic Environmental Design Research Centre, 1990, Pp. 72-85.
3. Awad, Mohamed & El Tabbakh, May, “The conservation and rehabilitation of Alexandria’s city center”, Patrimoines partage`s En Me`diterrane`e; Ele`ments cle`s de la re`habilitation, EUROMED Heritage II, Alexandria, 2005.
4. Godoli, Ezio& Giacomelli, Milva, "Italian Architects and Engineers in Egypt from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century", Italian institute for culture, Cairo, 25th November 2008.
5. Jones, Dalu. " Italian Architects in Egypt at the Time of the Khedive." Environmental Design: Journal of the Islamic Environmental Design Research Centre, 1990, Pp.86-93.
6. Pallini, C. & Scaccabarozzi, A. "New protagonists: projects for Egypt by Italian architects from 1952 to the present day", Italian Architects and Engineers in Egypt from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century ,by Italian institute for culture, Cairo, 2008 Pp. 198-216.
preface.
1- Historical study.
1-1- History of Alexandria.
1-2-Italian Architects and Engineers in Egypt.
1-3- Italian contributions in Alexandrian built environment:
2- Theoretical study: Damage diagnosis on stone buildings.
2-1- In site investigation and laboratory studies.
2-2- Structural failure and interventions in stone building.
3- Applied study on Alexandrian heritage.
3-1- Future of Alexandrian built environment.
3-2- Case study: El Manshieh “Mohamed Ali Square”.
Conclusion
References
Appendix (A): Weathering forms on stone buildings.
The Italian Architecture in Alexandria, Egypt (the conservation of the Italian residential buildings)