Hasht Bihisht Palace

Hasht Behesht

eight heavens (in Persian)

هشت بهشت

Eşfahān, Eşfahān, Iran

Eastern side of Chahar Bagh-e Abbasi St

Iran

1669

17th century

Decorative Objects, Furnishing, and Visual Works

paintings

Safavid (style)

Safavid dynasty (period)

Islamic

Iranian

Persian

Hasht Behesht Palace

Isfahan

painting

interior detail view of mural painting

Located in the center of the Garden of Nightingales (the Bagh-e Bulbul), the Hasht Behesht is one of Isfahan's two surviving Safavid pavilions. Built under Shah Sulaiman some twenty years after the Chihil Sutun, it is quite different in style from the earlier pavilion, although it exhibits the same concern for the interplay of interior and exterior spaces. 'Hasht Behesht' translates as 'Eight Paradises' and refers to a Timurid palace building type consisting of two stories of four corner rooms around a central domed space. In Isfahan, the corner rooms are octagonal, forming massive pillars that define four large openings leading to large porches in the south, east and west, and an iwan in the north. The vault of the central space is detailed with polychrome muqarnas and is capped with a lantern.

Saif Haq

Saif Haq

8/1/1991

© Saif Haq

Users must request permission from the copyright holder for all use in publications, including theses and dissertations.