The Turkish House was built close to the heart of the city market and attracts visitors thanks to its picturesque appearance. This appearance is reminiscent of the Orient. The building has a multicolour facade with windows created with eastern arches and ornaments of plants and geometric exemplars, arabesques and Arabic inscriptions. The reason behind this kind of decoration is the fact that both the Turkish and Greek consulate operated here.
It was opened by the Greek-Armenian, Nikolai Nikolaki Nikolides who lived in the same building. After working for a number of years as the Turkish vice consul, in 1898 he was nominated a permanent consul. He ordered the writing of 96 inscriptions in four different variants of Arabic language on the facade. The inscriptions come from the Quran and have a universal meaning. They are thoughts such as “Truth is our salvation”, “Rely on God” and the like. Built in the Neo-Moorish style, Nikolaides’s house is the only building of its kind in Croatia.
