Pavilion of Forty Columns
Chehel Sotun
Isfahan
This building -now a veritable museum of Persian painting and
ceramics -was a pleasure pavilion used for the king's entertainment's and receptions. It stands inside a
vast royal park, but relatively near the enclosure, and was built by Shah Abbas II round an earlier
building erected by Shah Abbas I. An inscription states that the decoration and frescoes were
finished in 1647. Only two large historical frescoes date from the later period of the Zand dynasty.
Unfortunately, the Chehel Sotun has been badly damaged since then, especially when the Afghans occupied the town and covered the paintings with a thick coat of whitewash. It is now being extensively restored under the aegis of the Institute Italiano Per il Medio Orient.
The pavilion opens onto the gardens
by means of an elegant terrace, only a few steps high and supported by slender, delicate wooden
pillars. In reality, there were never more than twenty columns, but they were reflected in the pool in
the park, and so the Persian liked to call the building the "pavilion with forty columns" (besides, the
number 40 had a symbolic meaning in Persia and expressed respect and admiration). Two rows of
water-spouts and fountains in the shape of stone lions at the four corners carried water to the huge,
elegant rectangular basin. The terrace is a marvel of elegance. The slender pillars
support a light wooden ceiling with wide fretwork louvers. Here we should note the influence of
Eastern Asian architecture. Part of the sumptuous decoration has disappeared. We must picture the
back wall covered with mirrors, the doors of rare carved wood, and the pillars, each cut from a single
plane-tree trunk, with their fine veneer, their brightly colored paintings, their mirrors and studs
of colored glass. We still have the remarkable ceiling with its beams, its covering, its painted
wood louvers, and its carefully lay-work-rosettes and suns, stars, stylized fruit and foliage. The
great wooden ceilings-a rare luxury in a country so lacking in trees-are among guarded by four
lions which support the central
columns.
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Back to Main Page - Official IUT Homepage - Legal Notice - Last Update : September 12, 2000.