Moghadam Museum is one of the historical monuments from the Qajar period, which is highly valuable in terms of history,architecture and objects stored in it. As soon as you put your foot into the entrance vestibule -hashti -of the house, you immediately leave the everyday mechanical life behind. The walls do not allow all this commotion to enter the private enclosure of this house now called the most valuable house of the world.
The museum is located in Imam Khomeini Street near Hasan Abad square. If you plan to use Tehran Metro to get there, Hasan Abad station is the nearest one. The museum atmosphere and sprit is a total paradox compering to the neighborhood it’s located in. All the surroundings and buildings around it have typical architecture and are relatively new, but as soon as you reach the entrance of the museum, everything change. The first things that will catch your attention, are a beautiful ponds, lots of magnificent geranium and the use of sharp Persian type colors like turquoise, blue and purple.
Iranian architectural principles of a Persian garden in this mansion is one of the kind. The residency used to be the house of Mohammad Taqi Khan Ehtesab-al Molk, one of the most famous members of Qajar court. Years later, Dr. Mohsen Moghaddam, a professor of archeology at Tehran University and his French wife Salma, bought the house. The couple who appreciated historical and artistic arts and crafts of Iran, began collecting valuable artifacts from around the country and exhibited them in their property.
In the west part of the mansion, the main section (tower) is located, which had been mastered by professor Moghaddam and one of his students at the Faculty of Fine Arts, doctor Abolqasemi, in 1966. The building is decorated with tiles from the Qajar era and parts of Iranian arts and crafts has been exhibited in it.
Along with all the other splendid constituent parts of this majestic house, we can also see exculsively valuable golden tiles which in order to be preserved, Moqadam had installed them in a suitable place in the walls. Some of these tiles are absolutely unique in the world.
Moqadam’s textile collection is also among rare textile collections of the world. They are now kept frozen in the complex and only one is publicly displayed in a glass frame.
In addition to all the doors and titled walls of Moqadam’s gorgeous building, there is also a small room next to the entrance door to the basement with all its door and walls decorated with valuable and semi-valuable gems and beautiful corals.
There are also objects such as the red potteries of Cheshmeh Ali dating back to the fifth millennium before Christ, which are extremely valuable and nobody knows how they have found their way to this house. They are going to be studied further by the head office of the museums of Tehran University which is now supervising this museum.
Here are some additional details about the museum:
- The museum is open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Tuesday through Sunday.
- Admission is 3000 Iranian rials (about $1.50).
- The museum is located at Imam Khomeini Street, near Hasan Abad square.
- The nearest metro station is Hasan Abad.
