Sheki Khan’s Palace

The very small, but unusually beautiful former residence of the Sheki Khans can be called the “quintessence” of Eastern culture – architecture, interior decoration, wall paintings: it all says that you are in the heart of the mysterious and sultry […]

     

The very small, but unusually beautiful former residence of the Sheki Khans can be called the “quintessence” of Eastern culture – architecture, interior decoration, wall paintings: it all says that you are in the heart of the mysterious and sultry “Land of Lights”.

Located in the center of Sheki, this historical and cultural monument of world importance was built in the 18th century in the then Persian style popular in the east.

The palace is really quite tiny: it is 2 floors high, its length barely reaches 32 m, and its width is 8.5 m, the total area does not exceed 300 square meters. m. There are only 6 rooms, 4 corridors, and 2 mirror balconies – but how beautiful they are! The facade of the residence of the Sheki Khans is decorated with fancy plots on the themes of hunting and war, as well as elegant ornaments and patterns. In the center there is a huge stained-glass window from a multi-colored mosaic, the other windows of the palace are also assembled from pieces of colored glass, which are protected by openwork stone grids. It is no coincidence that this residence is considered one of the best examples of palace architecture of the 18th century in the Caucasus. But start better with the history of this place.

Paragraph of history
The exact date of construction of the palace varies greatly from scholars from around the world – someone relates it to the end of the 17th century, someone already by the 18th century, but in Azerbaijan it is considered that the residence of the Sheki Khans was built in the 60s of the 18th century Huseyn Khan Mushtaq.

The facade of the residence of the Sheki Khans is decorated with fancy plots on the themes of hunting and war, as well as elegant ornaments and patterns.
As usual, at that time, the building was periodically repaired and renovated, there was even a fire here, but this almost did not affect the exterior of the palace – the architects tried to stick to the original project. For which many thanks to them: the palace is a truly unique heritage, which left a deep imprint on many famous sightseers, in particular, Alexander Dumas, Andrei Fadeev, Arnold Zisserman described him, Leo Tolstoy and Nikolay Raevsky mentioned.

In Soviet times, the Palace of Sheki Khans received the official status of the museum.

Palace paintings
The frescoes of the amazing Palace of the Sheki Khans are exactly what everyone wants to visit here for. They cover not only all the planes of the walls but also niches, ceilings, ceiling. As a rule, these are geometric and floral ornaments, whole narrative paintings and images of birds. The leading color is the noble gold, thanks to the brilliance of which ordinary drawings turn into exquisite masterpieces of the hands of brilliant masters.

Attracts the attention of the lower floor panels with stylized images of peacocks (the once sacred birds) at the “tree of life”.

The authors of the drawings – the mass, moreover, they are all made at different times. There are pieces of frescoes from European masters, and artists of the early 20th century (for example, the famous Usta Gambar and his brother Safar and son Shukur), and ancient images of the 18th century – paintings on the ceiling of the upper floor, made by Abbas Kuli.

Address: Giləhli, Səki. The palace of the Sheki Khans is located on the eastern outskirts of Sheki, you can get there on foot (stock up with a detailed map) and take a taxi.

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