A huge courtyard planted with rows of palm and orange trees, the Bagh-e Naranjestan is the setting for the opulently decorated Naranjastan-e Qavam pavilion, built for the wealthy and powerful Mohammad Ali Khan Qavam al-Molk between 1879 and 1886 as the buruni (public reception area) of his family home. The Khan-e Zinat ol-Molk housed the family’s andaruni (private quarters) and an underground passage (not open to the public) connected the two.
The pavilion’s mirrored entrance hall opens onto rooms with painted walls and ceilings. The ceilings in the upstairs rooms are particularly interesting, with the beams painted with European-style motifs, including Alpine churches and busty German fräuleins. The downstairs museum houses an archaeological collection put together by Arthur Upham Pope, an American scholar who taught at the Asia Institute in Shiraz between 1969 and 1979.
Down a small street beside the garden is the Khan-e Zinat ol-Molk originally the Qavam ol-Molk family’s gorgeous andaruni . Twenty rooms are embellished with paintings, stucco decoration and mirrors, and the mosaic floors were designed to resemble ornate Persian rugs. In the basement, the Fars Museum showcases wax figures of famous Shirazis. The museum is signposted from Lotf Ali Khan Blvd.
