The Museum of Ancient Iran is located at the western part of Mashhq Square in Tehran, Iran. It was designed by André Godard by the order of Ali-Asghar Hekmat, then Minister of Education of Pahlavi Iran. Two Iranian master builders, Ostad Morad Tabrizi and Abbas Ali Memar, constructed the building. Construction of the museum was started in 1934 and was completed in 1937. It was subsequently opened for the public. The land allocated to this museum is 5,500 square meters, of which 2,744 square meters is used for the foundation of the museum. The Museum, along with the adjacent Museum of the Islamic Era, make up the National Museum of Iran.
The building The museum encompasses an area of about 11,000 square meters, with its main building built in three floors. Its architects, André Godard, along with Maxime Siroux, were French architects whose designs were inspired from the Palace of Kasra in the ancient city of Ctesiphon of the Sasanian era. The construction of the museum was started in 1934 on the order of Minister of Education Ali-Asghar Hekmat. Iran's then ruler Reza Shah agreed to Hekmat's proposal for establishing a museum and designated a section of a former military compound as its location. The aforementioned Godard designed the structure, but he assigned two Iranian master builders, Ostad Morad Tabrizi and Abbas Ali Memar, to construct it. The building was officially opened in 1937. Primarily, the first floor of the museum was dedicated to pre-Islamic history of Iran and the second floor to the post-Islamic era. When designing the museum, Godard employed the egg-shaped Sasanian vaulted iwan adorned with intricate brickwork for the entrance. Specifically, the design of the entrance arch drew inspiration from the renowned Ctesiphon arch, albeit on a smaller scale. These egg-shaped arches, with their symbolic name, were utilized to span large areas in various Iranian buildings spanning different historical periods. Godard, in his essay "Neyriz mosque," recounted encountering facades reminiscent of Ctesiphon in recently constructed houses near Yazd and Semnan, highlighting the prevalence of such architectural forms and techniques in contemporary Iran. Incorporating historical elements into contemporary construction methods, Godard exclusively utilized locally sourced bricks. Adorning the upper section of the museum's entrance arch with marble, a poem celebrating the architectural prowess and Reza Shah adorned the facade. Crafted in the Tholth style by Amir AlKottab Kurdestani, a renowned calligrapher of the era, the poem was the creation of Mohammad-Taqi Bahar (also known as Malek osh-Sho'arā Bahār) a distinguished literary figure. Following the 1979 Islamic revolution, this inscription was replaced with verses from the Quran. Godard emphasized the reliance on domestic materials, stating that only display cases and certain metal components were sourced from abroad. While Godard undertook the architectural design, Siroux was tasked with creating the garden layouts for both the museum and the Iran National Library. Drawing inspiration from the precise geometry of Iranian gardens, central pools, and fountains, along with the placement of cypress trees along the garden perimeters, characterized the design. Historian Abbas Amanat suggests that contemporary Iranian public structures of that period often incorporated subtle nods to Persian architectural heritage. For instance, Amanat notes that both the Ancient Iran Museum and the Iran National Library were conceived with tasteful elements inspired by Sasanian architecture. However, Talinn Grigor critiques Godard's approach, labeling the Ancient Iran Museum as a "re-creation," while acknowledging its influence on subsequent architects, as evidenced by projects like Hossein Amanat's 1971 Shahyad Aryamehr Tower, which echoes the outline of the Ctesiphon vault in western Tehran. Despite such criticisms, Grigor acknowledges Godard's role in advocating for the utilization of historical motifs in shaping modern Iranian architecture. The museum building was originally intended to be an anthropology museum. But after the Islamic Revolution, with the establishment of the Cultural Heritage Organization and the concentration of ancient objects in the Museum of Ancient Iran, it was suggested that the museum be renamed to the National Museum of Iran and another museum named the Museum of Islamic Art be added to it. Eventually, in 1996, with the official opening of the Islamic Museum, the whole complex of the Museum of Ancient Iran and the Museum of the Islamic Era was officially named as the National Museum of Iran. The works of the Islamic era were officially separated from the Museum of Ancient Iran and moved to the adjacent building, which had been built in 1958.
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