A Panoramic View of Golestan Palace in Tehran

PHOTO: HOSSEIN AMINI

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Golestān Palace is the former royal Qajar complex in the Persian capital city of Tehran.

The oldest of the historic monuments in Tehran, the Golestan Palace (also Gulistan Palace / The Rose Garden Palace) belongs to a group of royal buildings that were once enclosed within the mud-thatched walls of Tehran’s Historic Arg (citadel).

The Arg was built during the reign of Tahmasp I (r. 1524-1576) of the Safavid dynasty in Persia (1502–1736), and was later renovated by Karim Khan Zand (r. 1750-1779).

Agha Mohamd Khan Qajar (1742–1797) chose Tehran as his capital. The Arg became the site of the Qajar (1794–1925). The Court and Golestan Palace became the official residence of the royal Qajar family. The palace was rebuilt to its current form in 1865 by Haji Abol-hasan Mimar Navai.

During the Pahlavi era (1925–1979) Golestan Palace was used for formal royal receptions and the Pahlavi dynasty built their own palace at Niavaran. The most important ceremonies held in the Palace during the Pahlavi era were the coronation of Reza Khan (r. 1925-1941) in Takht-e Marmar and the coronation of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (r. 1941-deposed 1979) in the Museum Hall.

In between 1925 and 1945 a large portion of the buildings of the palace were destroyed on the orders of Reza Shah who believed that the centuries old Qajar palace should not hinder the growth of a modern city. In the place of the old buildings modern 1950s and 1960s style commercial buildings were erected.