The Shah's Palace is an unusual mansion in Odessa

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

At this place back in 1794, immediately after the founding of the city, they planned to build a military hospital, but it did not work out. Then the mansion was owned by representatives of the Polish nobility. But the wide popularity, as well as the modern name of the building - the Shah's Palace, is associated with the residence of a real Iranian monarch in it.

Mansion owners

More than half a century after the founding of Odessa, one Polish magnate, Zenon Brzhozovsky, wanted to build himself an estate at the beginning of Nadezhdinskaya (as Gogol Street used to be called). He commissioned his compatriot, architect Felix Gonsiorowski, to work on the project, who completed it in 1852.

The estate was at the disposal of the Brzhozovsky dynasty until 1910. They preferred to rent it out. So, for some time, one of the guests was Fedor Rafalovich, the chairman of the Bessarab-Tauride Industrial Bank.

The new owner of the mansion already beloved by the inhabitants of Odessa is Joseph Shenbek, also a Pole by nationality, but he, like hispredecessor, personally was not going to live in the estate. Palace apartments are again rented out. It was in 1910 that the same fugitive Iranian monarch, Mohammed Ali, settled in them.

Architectural style and exterior

Gonsiorowski was a supporter of combining different styles. The Shah's Palace is a tandem of Neo-Gothic and Neo-Renaissance. The latter style is characterized by a craving for symmetry, division of facades. Rich towers, lancet arches are a tribute to neo-gothic. The building itself was built from the traditional material for Odessa - shell rock. Facing is made with luxury - from Inkerman stone. White color gives the impression of airiness.

The very place on the edge of the steep was also not chosen by chance. From the side of the sea, the mansion looked impressive: the vaults of the towers were buried in the greenery of the trees. The Vorontsov Palace, built three decades earlier, stood on the opposite side of the Military Descent. It was as if the two buildings were in silent competition.

Massive arched gates with a gate in the form of a drawbridge led to the palace complex - a kind of imitation of a medieval castle. They stood across Gogol Street. True, they were demolished in the 1960s. The arch that now crowns the entrance to the palace is a creation of today, although it looks quite organic along with the entire palace ensemble, which is more than 100 years older than it.

Odessians liked the creation of the Polish architect. There was no such building in the city either at that time or later. So, in the guide book of 1867, Brzhozovsky's house (this is how the Shah's Palace was called at that time, and it received its current name much later) was declared as one of the attractions of South Palmyra.

Famous guest

Symbiosis of cultures and nationalities - this is just in the spirit of Odessa. Whoever did not live here - Jews, and Arvanites, and Armenians … And when a coup d'état took place in Iran, the overthrown Shah decided to settle in Odessa for a while.

He liked this unusual mansion as a worthy apartment. And he safely settled in it with all his retinue. By the way, Mohammed Ali brought with him no less than 50 concubines, and they all lived together in this estate. Say what you like, but even for the battered Odessa, this was a curiosity. Sometimes residents of the city watched as the guilty concubines were put out the door right from the balcony of the first floor.

But, unlike the previous owners, the Polish gentry, who were arrogant and reserved people, the Shah quickly fell in love. He led an active public life, often walked the streets of the city, talked with residents. There is evidence that the generous and open Mohammed Ali used to give gifts to ordinary passers-by with or without reason. The former estate of Brzhozovsky gradually began to be called nothing more than the Shah's Palace. And although Mohammed Ali lived there for only 10 years, and in 1920 he left Odessa, leaving for San Remo, the name of the mansion was fixed forever.

In Soviet times

SWith the advent of the new government, the Shah's Palace in Odessa became the House of Folk Art and remained so until the collapse of the USSR. During these years, all the rich interior decoration was plundered. And in general, little remains of the former interiors, except perhaps the lobby and the main staircase. Inside, the floors were covered with parquet, there were fireplaces in the halls, and the walls were finished with marble. But all this has also already gone into oblivion due to the deplorable state in which the mansion was until the early 1990s. No wonder they had to do a restoration that lasted from 2000 to 2004.

Shah's Palace (Odessa): address

The building is located on Gogol Street, 2. Any Odessa citizen can easily show the way. Getting there is as easy as shelling pears: from the monument to Duke, walk along Teschiny Bridge to Arts Boulevard, which rests on the Shah's Palace. There are several other sights near it: Corner of Old Odessa, Monument to Orange, House with Atlantes.

Shah's Palace in Odessa: excursion

This building is a must on the city's sights list. It contains not only architectural, but also cultural value.

After all, not everyone will remember the year in which it was built, but the fact that a real shah lived here with his harem will surely be imprinted in the memory of the guests of the city. Almost every sightseeing walking or car tour of the city includes the Shah's Palace in Odessa. The price depends on the duration of the walk (on average 300-400 rubles). But you can easily get to it on your own: frommonument to Duke go there no more than 5 minutes. True, now you can admire the building only from the outside, because at the moment the office of the oil company is located here and they are not allowed inside.

So, being in Odessa and not visiting this iconic place is simply unforgivable. Moreover, it is located in the heart of the city.