Guide
The house is called the Italian Mansion because it belonged to an Italian family, the Dussi. They left Genoa in 1662 as officials of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, for diplomatic reasons, and over three hundred years settled first in Austria, then in Bulgaria, and finally in Türkiye.
Two brothers, Andrea Dussi (1788–1878) and Matteo Dussi (1815–1898), came to Tekirdağ in 1841 and built twin houses on what is now Barbaros Caddesi, drawing lots between themselves to decide who took which. The one known today as the Italian Mansion — and which served until 2019 as the Tekirdağ Namık Kemal public library — fell to Matteo.
After his father's death Matteo was appointed to the Italian consulate and carried out the post from this house. He married Regina Mısırlı and had eight children. His son Riccardo Dussi (1864–1936) married Evelina Navoni in 1904, and their three children — Mary, Matteo and Giovanni — were born here. When Italian troops landed at Tripolitania in 1911 during that war, and afterwards at Çanakkale, Rhodes and Lemnos, the family had to leave the house and flee, and soldiers took it over; they returned with the armistice in 1912.
Riccardo's son Matteo was studying engineering in France, and when his father's health failed he came back as the eldest son without finishing his degree. That Matteo Dussi (1906–1977) married Edvige Zabloska in 1934 and raised five children in the house — Mirella, Mario, Silvio, Edda and Aldo. He was given the honorary consulate of Italy in 1959 and held it until his death in 1977, after which the consulate was closed and the rest of the family moved to Italy and to İstanbul.
The building rises on a retaining wall. It is reinforced concrete faced in timber, with two floors above the ground level that project outward in bays. Stairs on the south lead to a door from which the basement is reached.
