Neshat Garden of Lorestan. This garden is situated on the northern side of the riverside boulevard and the Shah Abbasi Bridge, in the northwest of the city of Khorramabad, amid green surroundings. The Neshat Garden of Lorestan has served as a governmental seat since the Safavid era. Ali Khan Lori, the governor of Lorestan, rebuilt it approximately a century and a half ago and converted it into the provincial citadel of Lorestan. This building, which has been destroyed twice by earthquakes, included sections such as the private chambers, the audience hall, the attendants' quarters, the artillery room, and the armory. The garden covers approximately one hectare and is planted with jujube and palm trees. The main edifice was built on three stories, and the height of its iwan is 2.5 meters. Of the first floor, little remains except a few arches, but the other two stories have survived relatively intact. The ground floor is connected from the courtyard by several steps on both sides to this magnificent iwan, which is the most important and prominent part of the building. Beautiful stucco reliefs depicting floral, vegetal, and avian motifs have been carved into the ceiling of the iwan. The basement has three rooms, the central room positioned directly beneath the main iwan and illuminated from above through an octagonal opening. This floor currently serves as the Lorestan Ethnographic Museum. Dahane Shir (The Lion's Mouth). This building, registered on the National Heritage List on 2005/08/10 under number 12703, is one of the beautiful and ancient buildings of Khorramabad, located east of the bazaar entrance and beside Pir-e Penhan. The building has a small anteroom measuring 3.20 meters, with sloped steps leading downward over a length of 12.80 meters and containing openings toward the top. This building belongs to the Safavid period.
The Neshat Garden Bathhouse. The bathhouse is located in the northern section of the garden and probably dates to the Afsharid period. The interior spaces of the bathhouse comprise the dressing room, the middle chamber, the hot room, the furnace, and the reservoir. The domes of the dressing room and the hot room rest on columns with intertwined motifs. Decorative motifs and inscriptions in nasta'liq script have been rendered on the bathhouse walls. The bathhouse is built of stone, and its ornamentation is of lime. This garden was registered on the National Heritage List on 2003/08/08 under number 973 and has now been converted into a museum. Sources: Palami, Mohammad Ebrahim and Sima Alaviyeh. Lorestan, Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Administration of Khorramabad, 2009. Saeidian, Abdolhossein. Knowing the Cities of Iran, Elm va Zendegi, first edition, 2000. Soltanzadeh, Hossein. Iranian Bazaars, from the series What Do I Know About Iran? No. 11, Office of Cultural Research, first edition, 2001. Heritage of Fars, General Office of Education, Publications and Cultural Production, edited by Faramarz Talebi, summer 2002. Zia Tavana, Mohammad Hassan. Qeysariyeh Bazaar of Khorramabad, Ney Publishing, first edition, 2001. Vosoughi, Mohammad Baqer. Lorestan, from the series What Do I Know About Iran? No. 20, Office of Cultural Research, 2001.
Text and Photo: Babak Zirak. Narenjestan-e Ghavam Edifice, Shiraz. The splendid Narenjestan-e Ghavam edifice is a remnant of a complete complex attributed to the renowned and aristocratic Ghavam family — a dynasty that played a unique political and social role during the Zand, Qajar, and Pahlavi periods, and consequently left a prominent and striking imprint on Fars province and specifically on the urban fabric of Shiraz. The Ghavam ol-Molk complex encompassed numerous sections, including the large Narenjestan building, the audience hall, the residential edifice, the plastered bathhouse, the Hosseinieh, the school, the stables, the prison, and a private bathhouse. This complex led to a bazaar known as the Ghavam Bazaarche. Unfortunately, many of these valuable buildings have been destroyed over time due to neglect, lack of timely restoration, and the consequences of modern urban planning interventions that were carried out without regard for the value of historic buildings and solely for the purpose of designing vehicular access routes and cutting through the old fabric of the city. Ultimately, following the construction of Lotf Ali Khan Zand Street during the Pahlavi era, no trace of the other spaces forming the Ghavam ol-Molk complex has remained. Today, only the main edifice — which served as the seat of authority and the venue for ceremonies, receptions, and the accommodation of guests — along with the visitors' quarters (the outer edifice) and a smaller building known as the Zinat ol-Molouk residence (the inner edifice) survive within the historic fabric of Shiraz. Ali Mohammad Khan Ghavam ol-Molk commenced the construction of the residential complex, the audience hall, and the surrounding and supporting spaces in 1257 AH and completed it ten years later in 1267 AH. Later, around 1300 AH, Mirza Mohammad Reza Khan Ghavam ol-Molk completed this complex, and it was subsequently restored by Ebrahim Khan Ghavam. In 1345 SH (1966), this building was donated by the Ghavam family to Shiraz University, and during a ten-year period from 1348 to 1358 SH (1969-1979) it served as the headquarters of the Asia Institute under the direction of the renowned Iranologist Professor Arthur Upham Pope, and was finally placed at the disposal of the Faculty of Art and Architecture of Shiraz University in 1378 SH (1999). The magnificent Narenjestan building, set on a site of 3,500 square meters with a built area of approximately 940 square meters, is organized in two distinct northern and southern sections. One of the building's prominent features is the function of its southern wing as an entrance screen and concealing element. This wing, comprising a series of rooms and iwans overlooking the central courtyard, served — apart from accommodating the entrance vestibule and its open octagonal hall — as temporary lodging for various petitioners and subjects and a place for attending to their requests. It appears that only officials, guests, and special dignitaries were permitted to pass through this section, enter the elongated central courtyard, and then proceed to the main space. The entrance portal is positioned at the center of the building's longitudinal axis and features proportionate brickwork ornamentation. Above the entrance door, an inscription on red marble bears verses from the Holy Quran and poems by Asoudeh Shirazi regarding the construction date and the patron of the Narenjestan garden.
Although the aforementioned building has fewer decorative elements, the treatment of its spaces and surfaces is of very high quality. The beautiful blue and white floor tilework, the elaborate and ornate raised plaster decorations, the stucco muqarnas and marquetry work together with carved ornamentation on wooden columns, and similar decorative treatments on the wooden ceilings are among the embellishments of the service spaces and the public visitors' entrance in the southern building. On the facade facing the interior courtyard, apart from the narrow iwans, the stone-carved figures of subjects each bearing a gift are inspired by the reliefs of Persepolis. On the walls built above stone dados, a brick body accompanied by haft-rang (seven-color) tilework and images of servants attending guests on glazed tiles explain the function of this building. The large, rectangular central courtyard of Narenjestan, oriented north-south, is filled with bitter orange trees and two rows of tall palm trees that lend it particular grandeur. Stone-paved walkways extending along the rows of plantings guide visitors toward the main facade of the building. At the end of the green spaces, a large reflecting pool with a raised stone edge is positioned along the east-west axis, parallel to the building's facade, in whose broad surface the magnificent facade is reflected, thus completing the elements that compose a Persian garden. The main reception edifice comprises a tall basement with adequate natural light and ventilation from ground level and two stories above it. This edifice, by virtue of its splendid and proportionate structure, the artistic design of its interior spaces, and the masterful composition of its decorations, is one of the surviving masterpieces of architecture, stone carving, painting, stucco work, and mirror work from the Qajar era. The use of elements such as a tall columned iwan at the center of the building, decorative pinnacles at the highest part of the facade and atop the roof, sash windows with colored glass and proportionate subdivisions extending across two stories, and mirror work on the wooden and plaster surfaces of the walls and ceilings have bestowed upon this building a dazzling grandeur. Entry to the first floor, which stands approximately two meters above the courtyard level, is achieved by ascending several steps placed on both sides of the iwan.