Venetian and Ottoman Heritage in the Aegean: The Bailo House in Chalcis, Greece

This book tells the astonishing story of a secular building and its inhabitants over six centuries and four successive civilizations. The Bailo House was constructed as a public loggia in the 14th century by Venetian officials in their Aegean colony of Negroponte on the Byzantine island of Euripos. Italian designs were followed and copied in the style of the lagoon's palaces, digging the foundations through the earlier Byzantine layers.
It later housed an Ottoman official, along perhaps with his apothecary. Thereafter, it was severely damaged before passing into the hands of a local Ottoman dignitary, who completely transformed it into a typical Middle Eastern mansion. In the late 19th century it was reshaped once more with a neoclassical façade to conform to the European models promoted by the Modern Greek state. Extensive study, excavations and restorations over a ten-year period revealed remarkable evidence for one of the few remaining examples of secular architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as abundant and rare information about urban planning, material culture, economic and cultural exchanges, art and aesthetics, etc.
It is the tale of a harbor town that was always cosmopolitan, a port of call along the Silk Road, the winter base of the Ottoman fleet, a European enclave in the East.