Azernews.Az

By Seymur Aliyev

The Palace of Shaki Khans, a piece of real historical heritage, enchants everybody looking at this masterpiece of architecture. The main distinction making the palace unique among other ancient architectural buildings is disuse of nails and glue during construction work.

The old legends say the Khan had ordered to construct a palace with no matches in the neighborhood. An old and very talented architect undertook the daunting task to carry out the Khan's whim. The architect built for him a beautiful mansion painted with frescoes and mosaics embodying the royal household, with ancient ornaments of Azerbaijani symbols; most importantly, he did not use any nails during its construction.

The Khan was very amazed when he saw this wonderful building -- the most beautiful he had ever seen. Later the architect was executed, because the Khan did not want him to build another marvelous building of the kind.

The palace was built in 1762 by Hussein Khan, who was also known as a poet by the pen-name "Mushtag". The unique two-storied building amazes with its magnificent interior and exterior. The facade of the palace is richly painted with anecdotal drawings displaying scenes of hunting and war as well as intricate geometrical and vegetative patterns. A huge stained-glass window showing a multi-colored glass mosaic is in the center of the building. It is remarkable that up to 5,000 glass pieces were used per square meter. Other windows, which are smaller, are also made of pieces of colored glass and covered with openwork stone lattices. Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet wrote: "If there will be no other building in Azerbaijan it will be enough to show the Khan's palace to the world."

Another difference that makes the Palace of Shaki Khans special is colors, which have not faded for over four centuries. Scientists are still trying to reveal the content of those magical colors. Frescoes and decorations on the walls remain rich and deep as if they were drawn recently though the palace has not been restored for centuries. Snow, rain and sunrays could not spoil these glowing colors, tightly soaked on the walls of the palace.

One more feature of this wonderful palace is the climate control technology applied there. Little fences were constructed along all aisles to control cold air streams among halls. This unique technology helps to maintain the desired temperature in the rooms of the building.

The basic material for the palace construction was raw bricks, river stones, plane trees and oaks.

There are only six rooms, four hallways and two mirrored balconies in the palace. All the windows and doors of the palace were skillfully assembled from pieces of wood and colored Venetian glass. So, the light getting inside the palace plays with all colors of a rainbow: red, yellow, blue, green.

Each room of the palace differs from another and is skillfully decorated. All the walls and ceilings are painted with miniatures: mythical birds in a paradise garden, unusual flowers and animals. The natural paints used for the pictures are flush with bright colors. This kind of decoration gives you the idea that in the second half of the 18th century Shaki khanate was the center of well-developed wall painting.

It is worthy of note that the miniatures in each room have a special meaning. There are trees, flowers, animals and birds -- the symbols of fertility and noble origin -- on the walls and ceilings on the first floor.

The second floor has two parts -- the female and male sections. The female section is painted with flowers and Oriental ornaments.

The male part was designed to serve as a reception hall for visitors. It is the richest room of the palace. The miniatures on the walls show the military power of the khanate, its attitude toward friends and foes. It is possible to track the entire history of Shaki khanate: the weapons of the Khan's army and the enemies' arms, clothes, banners, military customs and many other things are depicted. There are also scenes of hunting for elephants, rare birds and even a dragon. The ceiling of the room is painted with images of the Khan's arms and various symbols.

A marvelous garden in front of the palace has only two huge branchy plane trees, which have survived until now. As devoted servants they have been protecting this architectural treasure of Azerbaijan for over 200 years.

The Palace of Shaki Khans, which attracts people with its magnificence, is open for travelers, who often compare it with the splendid Bakhchisaray Palace in Crimea, Ukraine.