The elder brother of opera composer Gaetano Donizetti, Italian-born Guiseppe Donizetti (1788-1856) came to Istanbul to help Sultan Mahmud II’s new professional army create western-style military bands to replace the old mehter bands.
Donizetti Paşa ended up living in the city for 28 years, for some of that time in a house close to the hotel in Tepebaşı now named in his honour. His Mahmudiye March became the national anthem of the Ottomans in the dying days of the empire.
He is buried in the Church of St Espirit inside Notre Dame de Sion in Harbiye.
