ABBASI HOTEL, ISFAHAN HERITAGE HOTELS
Victorian engravings of the Abbasi Hotel in Isfahan show a bustling caravanserai set within four walls, a water trough at the centre of the courtyard. While their camels drink, traders chat and swap tales, their wares piled around them, during a stop on the arduous trek along the Silk Road.
Today, the courtyard is a serene retreat in the centre of the historic city. A traditional Persian garden, it has a tree-lined channel, now camel-free, pools and fountains and carefully tended gardens of roses and quince trees, making it the perfect spot for coffee or a bowl of the hotel’s famed ash-re-reshteh soup.
The hotel dates back some 300 years, making it the oldest in Iran. It was built under the rule of the Safavid Shah Husayn and is as much a museum to the decorative opulence of that period as it is a commercial hotel. During the Seljuq and Safavid dynasties, Isfahan was the capital city. Shah Abbas I in the 17th century further ensured the city’s prosperity and influence by redirecting the Silk Road so that it passed through Isfahan.
The oldest section of the hotel houses the Safavid Suite, an extraordinary jewel box of a room painted from floor to ceiling in reds, greens and gold. The sculptural ‘stalactites’, called muqaruas, of the ceiling alcoves are patterned, like the walls, with decorative flourishes, plants and flowers.
The same delicate paintings line the hallways, with trees in blossom and birds in flight caught in perfect miniature. Every inch of the hotel is embellished with either inlaid wood, mirrored tiles, coloured glass or hand-painted friezes and decorative motifs.
The best view of the hotel complex and the city stretching out around it is from the rooftop restaurant. The turquoise dome and minarets of the neighbouring Chaharbagh theological school are floodlit dramatically after dark, when the lanterns around the garden also twinkle below.
In the early 1900s, the hotel was converted for use as a military complex and could have ceased to function as a hotel altogether. It was saved in the 1950s by the efforts of a French archaeologist, André Godard, who was working in Iran at the time. His campaign to save the hotel resulted in its careful restoration and reopening.
As a haven from which to explore the UNESCO treasures in Isfahan the Abbasi Hotel could not be bettered. As yet unchanged by the need for spas, gyms and a sushi restaurant, the hotel instead boasts a kaleidoscope of decoration and a fascinating history linking guests to the early travellers on the Silk Road.
www.abbasihotel.ir
Architectural Traveller | Page 46
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