Iranian Cultural Heritage as portrayed by the French Painter  EUGENE-NAPOLEON FLANDIN

Voyage to Persia
 (1840-1841)
Produced as a fill-length television film an 13 short films, the series introduces Iran's cultural heritage as retold through
 designs and travelogue of French painter and globetrotter, Eugene Flandin
 

DIRECTOR & SCREENWRITER:

KIOUMARS DERAMBAKHSH

The Music Garden

Ali Ghapu

 


The Subject of my sketches today is the Ali Ghapu
 edifice, on the western side of the NaghsheJehaan Square; another example of 16th century architecture with its decorative forms and designs.

The Ali Ghapu Palace was the main residence of shah Ab-boss, simultaneously serving as the centre of his government. Zit was the central geteway to all the old places.The palace and its portal overlooking the Naghshe-Jehaan Square are more than 50 metres high.On its upper part, it has a balcony whose wooden ceiling with its inlay work and decorations are supported by slender columns of plane tree. Standing upon this balcony, Shah-Abass could observe the capital of his dynasty and nearby countryside, as well as the twists and turns of the Zeeyand-e Rood river and the deserts of Yazd.

The edifice has five floors, each having a special décor of its own. Although the building has sustained much damage after the decline of the Safavid dynasty, there are still masterpieces of inlay work on the ceilings, wooden mogharnas patterns on column capitals, and stuccoes and paintings of the safavid era that move the onlookers

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Photos by Soraya Derambakhsh
Design and Program Mehdi Ostad