Foreign elements in Siamese/Thai architecture – the Italians (part 1)

Joachim Grassi (photo: Wikimedia – Chainwit

With the arrival of the first Europeans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was not long before Western elements appeared in Siamese architecture. The leading class in Ayutthaya looked with surprise and perhaps also some admiration at the strange structures that were erected by these foreigners on the outskirts of the city and especially the craftsmanship with which this was done.

There were not only the three Catholic churches with the associated Dominican, Franciscan and Jesuit monasteries, but also the commercial buildings of which the VOC headquarters, built in Dutch style, with a wide staircase and ornamental turret, was undoubtedly the most striking. It was therefore not long before the Siamese rulers made use of the services of Portuguese, French and Dutch master builders, masons and stonemasons. For a time they even enlisted the help of a few Jesuit Fathers who were apparently well versed in all trades to help them fulfill their architectural ambitions. It is known in travel descriptions that they were charmed by Dutch top gables and that bricklayers were sent from Batavia to Siam to help build typical Dutch neck and bell gables. Unfortunately, all these buildings were lost when the Burmese destroyed the Siamese capital with fire and sword in 1767.

In Lopburi, however, you can see the ruins of the residence that Constantine Phaulkon (1647-1688), the Greek adventurer and intriguer who became an advisor to the court of King Narai as Chao Phraya Wichayen, had built. Originally built as a residence for the French ambassador, this building complex with its high pointed gables, neo-classical door and window frames and elegant semi-circular landings gives a good impression of what these Western-Siamese buildings must have looked like at the time.

Ruin of Chao Phraya Wichayen's house, the remains of Constantine Phaulkon's residence in Lopburi (Amnat Phuthamrong / Shutterstock.com)

Western architecture, however, becamebooming business under the reign of King Chulalongkorn who ruled the kingdom from 1868 to 1910. This monarch was obsessed with the idea that Siam had to modernize at all costs in order to be able to offer resistance to the advancing western colonial powers on all sides. An important component of his large-scale reform policy was his ambitious urban plans for Bangkok. To impress Western visitors and especially Western authorities and diplomats, he had public buildings and palaces built in an architectural 'mixing style' which had to combine European grandeur with Asian elegance. He firmly believed that this architectural display of power, in which lavish borrowing was done with elements from the Renaissance and Baroque, among other things, would give Siam the necessary prestige and respect that would cause the Western powers to view Siam as a potential ally instead of a target for their colonial expansionism.

The king called on a number of European architects, including quite a few Italians, to realize these lofty ambitions, and today I would like to take a moment to reflect on the most important of these Mediterranean master builders. This was undoubtedly Gioachino or Joachim Grassi (1837-1904). Although I immediately predicate 'Italian' which must be put into perspective because Grassi was a child of his time and despite his clear Italian roots born and raised in the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy, more specifically in Capodistria, today's Koper in Slovenia. In other words, he was Austrian by historical coincidence, Italian in heart and temperament, and later became French by choice. Not much is known about his early years, except that he came from the de Grassi family, a family with solid Venetian roots. How he ended up in the Far East is also not entirely clear, but in 1869 we find him in Shanghai. The following year, however, he is in Bangkok where he becomes a partner in the French timber company Boneville. It was not a good time to get into this profession. The timber trade stagnated and the British foresters in Burma and Lanna formed stiff competition. Grassi quickly realized this and soon began to profile himself as a civil engineer and contractor.

Bang Pa-In Royal Palace

I have no idea how our enterprising Italian came into contact with Chulalongkorn, but it may have to do with one of his first really large construction projects, namely the design and construction in 1872 of the residence of Chao Phraya Surawong Waiyawat, a descendant of the Bunnag family, which in those days, after the royal family, was perhaps the most powerful in the country. In any case, in that same year Grassi was personally commissioned by the king to draw the main buildings – including the throne room – of the Bang Pa-in Palace. This old summer palace on the banks of the Chao Praya, near Ayutthaya, had fallen into disrepair for decades before King Mongkut, Chulalongkorn's father, decided to upgrade and actively use the complex again. Grassi was responsible for most of the new buildings on this site such as Warophat Phiman and Sabakran Rajaprayoon Residential Hall. Impressive buildings, which were clearly influenced by the robust but aesthetically pleasing Renaissance villas that the Italian master builder Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) had built in Veneto. The coupling of form purity and functionality that was typical of the Palladian villas became the permanent style characteristic of Grassi's work in Siam. This is in contrast to some other Italian architects who later entered Siamese service, who deliberately merged Western and Asian elements.

Warophat Phiman

Grassi's designs were clearly appreciated and orders followed each other in rapid succession. In 1883, together with his brothers Giacomo, an engineer and Antonio, a sculptor, he founded the company Grassi Brothers & Co. On. A company registered at the Austro-Hungarian consulate. The following years prospered for the brothers. They designed and built absolutely everything: from schools (Sunandalay School & Assumption College), over a prison (Old Bangkok Remand Prison), the bell tower of the Conception Church and the headquarters of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank to the monumental neo-Gothic burial monument for the British diplomat and Chulalongkorns' top adviser Henry Alabaster. Some of their designs, including palaces, still determine the street scene in Bangkok to this day, with the most striking example perhaps being the monumental barracks that Joachim Grassi built between the Grand Palace and the Shrine in front of the City Pillar and which still serve today. as the Ministry of Defense or the equally imposing old Customs House in the Bang Rak district next to the Chao Phraya.

Department of Defense (Panya7 / Shutterstock.com)

For the, in my opinion, most bizarre construction that rolled off Grassi's drawing table, we have to go back to Ayutthaya. Wat Niwet Thammaprawat is, in my opinion, the only Buddhist temple in the world that was built as a real Gothic European church, including a church tower with a spire. This unique edifice that I believe to be with most farang completely unknown, is located near the Bang Pa-in palace and is definitely worth a visit for the strange sensation of walking in one of the sixteen Buddhist temples that annually receive royal kathinaofferings, while the bright bands of color from the neo-Gothic stained glass windows illuminate what at first sight is a Christian high altar, which on closer inspection turns out to be a Buddhist shrine. Ditto for the accompanying pulpit.

Wat Niwet Thammaprawat

There is even a Dutch link to this flamboyant Italian. In 1888 he drew the plans for the new building for the Concordia Club in Batavia. This society, founded in 1836 for Dutch army and naval officers, was in urgent need of a new multi-functional club building and, after much deliberation, it was considered that Joachim Grassi was the most suitable man to bring this assignment to a successful conclusion. The new Concordia, including restaurant, bar and library, opened its doors on Waterlooplein in 1890.

In 1893 Grassi's adventure came to an abrupt end. The still existing Grassi & Brothers was sold to their former business partner Edward Boneville and Grassi left Siam never to return. The reason for this drastic decision lay in the Franco-Siamese War, a brief military incident in the summer of that same year, in which the French had used brutal gunboat diplomacy to force the Siamese to a considerable distance east of the Mekong. A blow to the jaw that Chulalongkorn would not easily forget. France, Grassi's adopted homeland, was understandably not a favorite at the Siamese court in those days, and Grassi may have decided to take his money's worth or avoid losing face and return to Europe. Perhaps it was a cynical twist of fate that the Chulachomklao Fort, which played a key role in this Franco-Siamese War, was designed by Grassi in 1884 and completed just before this mini-war broke out.

Chulachomklao Fort

When he left Bangkok, he left behind his three sons Félix Auguste (°1880), Eugène César (°1881) and Georges Raphaël (°1884) with their mother who bore the curious name of Lucie Nho. The French first name and Asian family name suggest that she may have been a Catholic woman from what was then Indochina, but unfortunately no documents have been preserved to substantiate this thesis. What we do know is that Joachim Grassi married again in 1897, this time to Amalia Margaritha Josepha Stölker (°1857), the sister of a former Austrian partner in Grassi & Brothers who had bought into the firm after Antonio had bought in Florence and Giacommo in 1887. died in Bangkok in 1890. From this marriage two more sons, Ugo (°1897) and Oscar (°1900) would be born.

The only building I have been able to trace that Joachim Grassi left behind after his return is also very special. It is the funerary monument for his brother Antonio, who was given a final resting place in their hometown of Koper. It is known locally as it Indian Grave, and who would the locals be wrong because it is a kind of chedi that is made up of an eclectic mix of Buddhist prang, siamese roofs, semaboundary stones and weeping angels. Joachim Grassi himself died on August 19, 1904 in Trieste. Two years before his death he published another study 'Etude sur l'irrigation du Royaume de Siam'. Apparently he had a hard time letting go of the country where he lived for 23 years…