The Palace of the Shirvan Shahs

About The Palace of the Shirvan Shahs

Palace in Azerbaijan

The Palace of the Shirvanshahs is the highlight of Baku's Old City and its most important sight, a 15th-century palace built by the rulers of Shirvan, who bore the Persian title Shirvanshah, after they moved their capital from Shamakhi to Baku; UNESCO describes it as "one of the pearls of Azerbaijan's architecture". Together with the Maiden Tower and the Old City walls it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2001. Shirvanshah Sheikh Ibrahim I began the main building in 1411, a two-storey structure of about fifty rooms of varying size connected by three narrow winding staircases. The complex contains the main palace building; the Divanhane, an octagonal pavilion with a carved arcade thought to have served as a council and court chamber; the burial vault of the Shirvanshahs with its delicate stone ornament; the Shah's mosque with a minaret dated 1441/1442; the mausoleum of the Sufi scholar Seyid Yahya Bakuvi, known as the "mausoleum of the dervish", south of the palace; the eastern portal called Murad's Gate; a reservoir and the remains of a bath house. No inscriptions survive on the palace itself, so its construction is dated by the inscriptions preserved on the tomb and the mosque minaret. In the past a wall with towers surrounded the palace, which thus served as the inner stronghold of the Baku fortress. The palace halls today display objects of the Shirvan era, including arms, coins, carpets, copperware and musical instruments, and in some seasons evening light shows are projected onto its facades.

Where:

Baku, Azerbaijan