Beyond The Walls: Reading Theater Buildings in Late Ottoman Beyoğlu (Pera) Through the Image of the City

This study details the evolution of traditional Ottoman theater buildings, interrogating their social traces before examining the positioning of Beyoğlu (Pera) theater buildings through the image of the city. Addressing the core problem, "How did theater buildings construct social behavior and the urban image in the Late Ottoman Period?", the research bridges a gap that predominantly treats these venues via art history or building inventory perspectives. To trace this spatial-behavioral evolution within the city of image, a spatial analysis of Beyoğlu theater buildings is conducted using Huber (1887-1891) and Goad (1904-1906) maps. Utilizing primary and secondary sources as visual and written archives, books, journals and the Ottoman Archives, the study demonstrates that theater buildings functioned not merely as architectural entities, but as urban components shaping socio-cultural dynamics and circulation, defining nodes, edges and districts and transforming into monumental landmarks.