back view of pink marble palace of Prince Saiid Halim Pasha designed and constructed in 1899 by Antonio Lasciac Bey (Gorizia 1856 - Cairo 1946)

interior staircase (photo courtesy of Franco Gambarelli; yr 2000)

Visitors walking in or out of Cairo's trendy Townhouse Gallery on Mimaar Hussein Pasha Street (Sheikh al-Maarouf district) are bewildered at the derelict palace that stands nearby. Occupying an entire block it looks like it's a set from Roman Polanski's remake of Vampire's Ball.

But what is such an ex- magnificent edifice doing in the middle of a district cluttered with garages, mechanics, street coffee shops and mounds of rubbish. Who designed it and who lived there? More importantly, why is it in such a sorry state?

To begin with, the architect was court architect Antonio Lasciac, Egypt's renowned palace builder. Italian by culture and an Austro-Hungarian citizen by accident of birth, his clients included members of the Khedivial family, Cairene notables and trusted institutions. Among his more visible works are Banque Misr on Mohammed Farid Street and the Palace of Princess Nimet Kemaleldine (a.k.a. Palace of Prince Jamil Toussoun) currently being restored, across from the Arab League.

In the case of the palace subject this article and as attested by the superemposed monograms "SH" on the many decorative pillars, his client was Prince Saiid Halim Pasha, a grandson of Mohammed Ali.

Born in the Palace of Shubra in 1865, history has it that Prince Halim's father could have been the ruler of Egypt had it not been for an ambitious nephew upstaging him at every level of the way right into the Sultan's inner court in Istanbul. Disregarding tradition and using lavish gifts and bribes Khedive Ismail made sure it would be his own son Tewfik and not his older 'Turkish' cousins who would succeed him.

The two cousins most likely to have succeeded Ismail, prior to the Firman of 1873 establishing primogeniture, lived in Istanbul and had at one time or another, occupied senior military and cabinet posts in the Turkish government. Having grown up on the Bosphorus they were familiar with and most probably inspired by the palaces of Topkapi, Dolmabahce and Beylerbey.

One cousin, Saiid Halim Pasha, was also enamoured with Rome--the city he would be assassinated in years later by an Armenian terrorist, Arshavir Shiragian, on 6 December 1921. His choice of architect and style for his Cairo palace was therefore decidedly Roman. Moreover, Halim, a man of luxurious taste, made sure most of the material used in the construction and decoration was imported directly from Italy. A tout prix, il fallait epater les cousins! (At all cost, one must impress the cousins!)

It is said however that Prince Halim's wife, Amina Indji Toussoun, herself a great-granddaughter of Mohammed Ali, did not particularly like the palace. Her preferences lay with the Bosphorus, where she would eventually die in 1915, the venerable wife of the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.

Prince Said Halim and his wife Amina

Designed by Petraki Adamanti, Prince Saiid Halim Pasha's Ottoman yali stands on the upper European shore of the Bosphorus

Egyptian lions guarding Prince Saiid Halim's yali in Yenikoy

 

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Bosphorous villa of Princess Iffet Hassan at Emirgan today the Sakib Sabanji Museum

When Mahmud Shevket Pasha, Prime Minister of the Ottoman Empire was shot on 11 June 1913 while crossing Istanbul's Bayazid Square, he was replaced by Prince Saiid Halim Pasha. For the next few years Halim was the illustrious boss of the quintessential Sublime Porte--official seat of the Ottoman government. In his capacity as Al Sadr al-A'zam a.k.a. Grand Vizier, Halim Pasha was the highest official in the empire. Yet it was no secret, both at home and abroad, that Halim was a pawn in the hands of the Young Turks, that powerful movement that had taken over the country's destiny. Wanting among other things, to introduce a constitutional government in an ailing autocratic empire ruled by Sultan Mehmed V., the Young Turks instead brought the empire to its accelerated demise.

One can say Halim's standing in British-controlled Egypt was doomed on 2 August 1914, when, in his opulent yali in Yenikoy, Turkey signed a secret alliance with Germany committing itself against the United Kingdom.

Three months later to the day Britain, France and Russia declared war on Turkey. Although he threatened to resign, Prime Minister Halim Pasha was reluctant as ever to give up the sybaritic pleasures of his post. As a result he witnessed first-hand the final scene to a 300-year Ottoman presence in Egypt, now officially declared a British Protectorate.

On 13 March 1915 in Cairo, by order of the Egypt's British occupiers, all of Halim's assets as well as those belonging to his siblings and their respective families, were confiscated. These included large landholdings, several properties and bank accounts and, the Halim Palace in Cairo's Ismailia district.

The palace was turned into El Nasriya School for boys where many a future senator, deputy and cabinet minister received his preparatory education. At first, the school occupied the entire palace property which is why the address given in 1920 was still No. 9 Antikhana El Masriya Street. A few years later the palace park disappeared so that where Royal Palms, fountain and garden had been, came new apartment buildings fronting Antikhana Street. The school's address was changed to No. 6 Rue Champollion (ex-Wabour al-Maya; ex-Mouillard) Street.

Nasriya School 1939 (courtesy Kamal Nabih)

For a long time El Nasriya was considered together with El Saiidiya School across the river, as the leading educational establishments for sons of pashas and beys, a stigma that would later earn Halim Palace its ultimate death sentence.

With the extinction of titles and Egypt's old bourgeoisie, the palace became the unlucky ward of the ministry of education. Thereafter, the deterioration came in steady increments fueled by ignorance and greed. A dispensary here, an office for the ruling party there, plus the indiscriminate building of brick walls on the balustrades and the pilfering of the priceless pink marble and other rare historical rarities.

The rest is shameless history.

1920 map showing Halim Palace fronting Antikhana Street

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click here for Mohammed Ali Family Tree

Notes:

Also in Emirgan stands the seashore house of Princess Iffet Hassan, a granddaughter of Khedive Ismail. The house has been restored by the Sakib Sabanji Foundation and is today a wonderful museum.