Hasht Behesht Palace (Tabriz)
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The Hasht Behesht Palace (Persian: کاخ هشتبهشت, lit. 'Palace of the Eight Paradises') was a palace in the northern part of the city of Tabriz started by the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan (r.1452–1478) and completed by his son Yaqub Beg (r.1478–1490). Its completion is generally dated to 1483–1486.
Probably built upon an earlier structure by Jahan Shah, the Sahebabad Garden of Tabriz with the Hasht Behesht Palace at its center became the dynastic center of the Aq Qoyunlu capital of Tabriz.
The Palace was visited around 1510 by Domenico Romano, a Venetian merchant, who left an elogious and lengthy description. He described the building as an octagon some 63 to 72 meters in circumference (equivalent to 20–23 meters in diameter) two stories tall and topped by a dome, that included a hall surrounded by thirty-two chambers, with several terraces. The Venetian marvelled "this building, on the ground floor, has four entrances, with many more apartments, all enameled and gilt in various ways, and so beautiful that I can hardly find words to express it."
The palace was also decorated with many descriptive scenes of past events, all in realistic style, including the visit of an Ottoman embassy to Uzun Hasan, or his hunting expeditions. The general color palette used gold, silver, and ultramarine blue.
The Palace appears in various documents of the period, such as the 1538 map of Tabriz by the Ottoman geographer Matrakçı Nasuh.
Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.