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Construction
Construction of Palace of the Shirvanshahs
palace in Azerbaijan
- 15th century – 15th century
- Middle East
Construction
palace in Azerbaijan
Fetching the article from Wikipedia…
The Palace of the Shirvanshahs (Azerbaijani: Şirvanşahlar Sarayı, Persian: کاخ شروانشاهان) is a 15th-century palace built by the Shirvanshahs and described by UNESCO as "one of the pearls of Azerbaijan's architecture". It is located in the Inner City of Baku, Azerbaijan and, together with the Maiden Tower, forms an ensemble of historic monuments inscribed under the UNESCO World Heritage List of Historical Monuments. The complex contains the main building of the palace, Divanhane, the burial-vaults, the shah's mosque with a minaret, Seyid Yahya Bakuvi's mausoleum (the so-called "mausoleum of the dervish"), south of the palace, a portal in the east, Murad's gate, a reservoir and the remnants of a bath house. Earlier, there was an ancient mosque, next to the mausoleum. There is still ruins of the bath to the west of the tomb.
In the past, the palace was surrounded by a wall with towers and, thus, served as the inner stronghold of the Baku fortress. Despite the fact that at the present time no traces of this wall have survived on the surface, as late as the 1920s, the remains of apparently the foundations of the tower and the part of the wall connected with it could be distinguished on the north-eastern side of the palace.
There are no inscriptions that survive on the palace itself. Therefore, the time of its construction is determined by the dates in the inscriptions on the architectural monuments, which refer to the complex of the palace. Such two inscriptions were completely preserved only on the tomb and minaret of the Shah's mosque. There is the name of the ruler who ordered the establishment of these buildings in both inscriptions is the – Shirvan Khalil As time of construction – was marked on the tomb, 845 on the minaret of the Shah's mosque.
The burial vault, the palace and the mosque are built of the same material, the grating and masonry of the stone are the same.
The complex originally occupied a larger area and included rooms designated for court servants and various service functions.
The main buildings of the ensemble were built at different times. Despite this fact, these buildings are linked by unity of scale, by rhythm and proportionality of the basic architectural forms – cubic volumes of buildings, domes, portraits. The builders of the ensemble relied on the traditions of the Shirvan-Absheron architectural school.
In 1964, the palace complex was declared a museum-preserve and taken under the protection of the state. In 2000, this ensemble, along with the fortified walls of the historic part of the city and the Maiden Tower, was named a World Heritage Site.
The palace is depicted on the obverse of the Azerbaijani 10,000 manat banknote of 1994–2006 and of the 10 new manat banknote issued since 2006.
In the 15th century the Shirvanshah dynasty, under Ibrahim I of Shirvan, transferred his capital from Shemakha to Baku following a devastating earthquake. He committed himself to the construction of the "palace". The building is believed to be a memorial complex built around the sacred place of worship (pir) and tomb of Seyyid Yaxya Bakuvi, who was a Helwati Sufi saint. The Shirvanshahs were patrons of the Helwati Sufiye order, and Shirvanshah Khalilullah I was buried with his family in the grounds of the palace. Other historians argue that the building was used as the ruler's palace. Both theories suffer from the absence of evidence. It is known that wells inside the grounds of the "palace" were considered to have healing qualities until recent times, as was the hill where the palace was built.
After the Safavid conquest of Baku in 1501, the Sufi order was expelled. Over centuries, the "palace" fell into ruin and was known in Baku as Baku Khans palace; this toponym moved into Russian historiography, first cited by Bartold.
Until 1501, there was not any information found about the building of the palace. According to one of the Persian chronicles, in 1501 the troops of Shirvanshakh Farrukh-yessar, the son Khalil-ully I, were defeated in Shemakha by the troops of Shah Ismail I from the Safavid dynasty. Farrukh-yessar was killed in the Battle of Shirvanshah; the troops of Ismail I, having defeated near Shemakha, moved to Baku, besieged it and after several assaults took the city. Then, a tall building of Shirvanshahs was destroyed due to the order of Shah Ismail I. After a while, the city of Baku and its entire district, as well as Shirvan, were governed by the governors who were placed by the Safavids. There is not any detailed information about the people who lived in the palace and in what state it was in the first half of the 16th century.
In the second half of the 16th century, there was a war between the Safavids and the Ottoman Empire. In 1578, the Turks conquered Baku. From the time of the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the palace area, the gate in the palace wall surrounding the palace from the east has been preserved. From the inscription placed on the portal of this gate, it follows that they were built during the reign of the Turkish sultan Murad III (1574–1595 years of rule).
Due to the literary works, there were Turkish pashas living in the palace at that time. The East Gate is a witness of this.
Since the 17th century, the palace was empty, and there were not any government officials. The abbot of the monastery and the representative of the Isfahan mission, Capuchin Pater Raphael du Mans in his essay in 1660 described Shirvanshah Palace in Baku fortress and gave information about its desolation and destruction. In 1723, Baku was besieged by the troops of Peter I, and the city was bombed. In this regard, the south-eastern facades of the palace suffered much. The palace was transferred to the Russian military department in the middle of the 19th century.
The Russian military department made a partial renovation of the palace. At the same time, the significant restructuring was carried out, which adapted the palace facilities to warehouses for military equipment. Repairs carried out by the military department, along with the restoration of the destroyed parts, and led to the destruction of a number of parts required for the restoration of the palace. By adapting the building of the palace to the warehouse, the military department demolished a number of walls separating the rooms in the second and first floors, and there were semicircular arches supporting the roof instead of them on the second floor.
The remains of domed, lancet and cross-slabs were destroyed in all the rooms on the second floor; they were replaced by flat beams. And window openings (double-glazed windows) of the second floor were laid out so that only small windows remained. New wide doorways were pierced.
During this period, the Eastern Orthodox Church in Baku sought the demolition of the palace to build a Baku cathedral in its place. However, this petition was rejected by the tsarist authorities only because the premises of the palace were used for large warehouses.
There was an entrance made to the second floor of the northern facade of the palace, and a huge opening was punched in the wall. This was done so that the cart drawn by the horses from the street could enter the second floor of the palace. After making the above-mentioned reorganization, the military department attached a ladder to the eastern facade of the palace, and the entire southern (or lower) courtyard was surrounded by a stone wall with loopholes. This wall was erected from a foundation left from the old walls surrounding the palace. The palace ensemble is now protected by fortress walls erected in the first half of the 19th century.
During the existence of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (1918–1920), a number of measures were taken to study and fix architectural monuments. Thus, at the end of 1918, the dimensional drawings of the Shirvanshahs Palace were made by the Ishmael Bek Nabi oglu, the architectural engineer. At the beginning of 1920, several cycles of lectures on the fate of the palace were read in the "Society for the Study of the Muslim East" by Ismail bek Nabi oglu. The periodical press indicated that the report was illustrated by various photographs and drawings of the palace. After the reports and debates, the presidium of the society was elected, which included chairman Professor Zimin, Comrade chairman I Belyaev, secretary-teacher Seidov and Kazioni Subkhanverdikhanov. The meeting instructed the presidium to organize an excursion to the palace in the near future.
In 1920, the government of the Azerbaijani SSR began to take measures to protect the monument. Since 1920, the cleaning of the palace from the age-old layers of garbage and partial repairs began, accompanied by archaeological reconnaissance.
In 1924, the works were continued. After the extensive repair and restoration works of 1932–1934, conducted by AzCUOP together with the Moscow State Restoration Workshops for projects designed by architect Boris Zasypkin, the building of the former Shirvanshah palace was given to the Azerbaijan History Museum AzFAN. Since the clay floors were fragile, and the building of the palace was intended for the organization of a museum in it, during the repair and restoration work the floors were covered with parquet. Also, during the works from the window openings were laid the stones laid in the 19th century, and they were returned to their original appearance. The original layout of the second floor was not restored, due to the fact that the premises were supposed to be a museum: where there are only two rooms, there were originally eight rooms. The plan of the first floor was completely restored.
In 1937–1938 under the guidance of archaeologist Vadim Leviatov, archaeological excavations were carried out in the palace and a large number of artifacts dating from the 12th–15th centuries were found. The archaeological excavations conducted by Leviatov in 1945 on the territory of the palace ensemble, deep beneath the foundations of the surviving buildings, revealed the remains of a once densely populated residential quarter. Numerous fragments of ceramic products and coins date it to the 8th–9th centuries.
For some time, the Azerbaijan People's Museum and the Museum of the History of Religion were located in the palace building. In 1960, the palace was turned into an architectural reserve, which in 1964 was transformed into the State Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve "Complex of the Shirvanshahs Palace".
In 1992, new restoration works began. The author of the restoration project of the palace complex was Niyazi Rzayev. The restoration began from the throne room. In 2000, at the 24th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, the historical part of the city of Baku, Icheri Sheher, along with the palace, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site from Azerbaijan. These were the first objects included in the list of UNESCO, located on the territory of Azerbaijan. In 2006, the next restoration of the palace was completed.
In 2017, the Maiden Tower and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs were awarded with the Certificate of Excellence.
The building of the palace did not arise at once. The building of the complex was started in 1411 by Shirvanshah Sheykh Ibrahim I. The two-storey building of the palace numbers about 50 dimensions and outlines of the constructions connected with three narrow winding staircases. The big lancet portal directly leads from the courtyard to the second floor, into a high octahedral lodging covered with a cupola. A small, octagonal vestibule behind it connects it with the rest of the lodgings in the palace.
The earliest building (approximately the end of the fourteenth century) is the central part (octagonal hall of the second floor). The part adjoining the western facade was added a little later. The western, northern and a small part of the eastern facades form an incomplete rectangle. The rest of the eastern facade and the entire southern facade are formed by two triangular lanterns and a broken line between them, enclosing four right angles.
There were originally 52 rooms connected by three narrow spiral staircases in the palace building: 27 on the first and 25 on the second floor (currently 16 rooms on the second floor), and the layout of the second floor basically reproduced the plan of the first floor. The central part of the palace (octagonal hall on the second floor, the entrance to which is decorated with a portal) has thicker walls. Arranged on the western facade, the main entrance to the palace is decorated with a high portal. The ladder of the portal leads to a tall octagonal front hall, covered with a dome. It is assumed that this room served for receptions.
The small octagonal lobby behind it connected the hall to the rest of the rooms. Slit-shaped holes in the faces served as a voice connection with the lower floor, where the office premises were located. The rooms and rooms of the second floor are more ceremonial. Among them, there are the southern and eastern facades with bay windows that reveal the bay view. There are also rooms for the Shah and his family on the second floor.
The smooth surface of the large stone planes of the palace is shaded by alternating rows of masonry, differing in color, width and texture, as well as the "shebeke" aura – stone gratings in small light apertures.
There were daily-life objects, coins from the 12th to 15th centuries, copper utensils, weapons and decorations of the 19th century, musical instruments of the 15th century found during the archaeological excavations both on the territory of the palace complex and in the territory of the historical center of Icheri-Sheher and Shirvan. There were also female costumes and embroidery of the 19th century, Shemakha carpets of the 19th century and carpets woven in the 17th century in Baku. There is a mock-up of the historic part of the city in the center of the hall.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Palace of the Shirvanshahs”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.