Azerbaijan · 15th century
The Palace of the Shirvanshahs (Azerbaijani: Şirvanşahlar Sarayı, Persian: کاخ شروانشاهان) is a 15th-century palace built by the Shirvanshahs and described by UNESCO as "one of the pearls of Azerbaijan's architecture". It is located in the Inner City of Baku, Azerbaijan and, together with the Maiden Tower, forms an ensemble of historic monuments inscribed under the UNESCO World Heritage List of Historical Monuments. The complex contains the main building of the palace, Divanhane, the burial-vaults, the shah's mosque with a minaret, Seyid Yahya Bakuvi's mausoleum (the so-called "mausoleum of the dervish"), south of the palace, a portal in the east, Murad's gate, a reservoir and the remnants of a bath house. Earlier, there was an ancient mosque, next to the mausoleum. There is still ruins of the bath to the west of the tomb.
In the past, the palace was surrounded by a wall with towers and, thus, served as the inner stronghold of the Baku fortress. Despite the fact that at the present time no traces of this wall have survived on the surface, as late as the 1920s, the remains of apparently the foundations of the tower and the part of the wall connected with it could be distinguished on the north-eastern side of the palace.
There are no inscriptions that survive on the palace itself. Therefore, the time of its construction is determined by the dates in the inscriptions on the architectural monuments, which refer to the complex of the palace. Such two inscriptions were completely preserved only on the tomb and minaret of the Shah's mosque. There is the name of the ruler who ordered the establishment of these buildings in both inscriptions is the – Shirvan Khalil As time of construction – was marked on the tomb, 845 on the minaret of the Shah's mosque.
The burial vault, the palace and the mosque are built of the same material, the grating and masonry of the stone are the same.
Text adapted from “Palace of the Shirvanshahs” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Palace of the Shirvanshahs ranks #460 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #1 of the 46 mapped in Azerbaijan. Founded c. 1500, it is older than 43% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 554 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 5,931 times in the last 60 days, more than 89% of the atlas. 7 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Baku, 1 km away. See how Azerbaijan compares in the castle statistics.
View on the interactive castle map →