Italian architect Raimondo D'Aronco already was a prodigy in his own country while he was young. He was invited to Istanbul in 1893 to prepare designs for the Istanbul Exhibition of Agriculture and Industry (1896). His designs were approved by sultan Abdulhamid II, but the exhibition was scrapped as an earthquake wrecked Istanbul in 1894. The repairs that had to be done exacerbated the need for his services. Until Abdulhamid II's deposition in 1909, D'Aronco worked as the sultan's architect for 16 years.

D'Aronco may have designed the art nouveau fountain in Beyoglu.