By Syma Sayyah, Tehran

Recently I was invited by my young friends to a beautiful new cafe near the Hessabi crossing.  It is opposite the late Dr Hessabi’s house in the north of Elahieh below the Tajrish end of Maghsoudbek Street.  It was such a delight to go to this lovely garden and sit in the lovely cafe and enjoy the peace, tranquility and beauty which is very rare in the crazy busy Tehran that I love.

This petit lovely garden is called Bagh Mouseh Honar-e Iran (Iranian Art Museum Garden) and it was built last winter.  It used to belong to a general in Reza Khan’s army, and it opened to the public about six months ago through the efforts of the Iran Heritage Institute.  Besides the natural beauty of the place, there are many symbolic features that you might expect from an Iranian Garden including especially the water channels coming from a pool and going round the garden, although sadly, except for one time, I have never seen the fountains working when I have been there.  There is an outdoor cafe, but you can also choose to sit inside, and there are modern art works all around.

 

There are many modern sculptures from a recent symposium of Iranian and foreign sculptors, but what makes it unique for me and is the major feature of this garden are the scale models of many of the famous Iranian heritage sites such as the Si-o-seh-pol Bridge and Chehel Sotoun in Isfahan, the famous Shamsoul-emareh monument in Tehran and Bagh Fin in Kashan, the Karavansaraye Mehyar, Ghar-e Kelisa (black church) in west Azerbaijan, the prophet Daniel Mausoleum and last but not least the Naghsh-e Roustam from Persepolis which is at the far west side of the garden near the cafe.

There are many more of these models throughout the garden.  Some of them were made years ago by an Italian company to mark the 2500th anniversary celebrations of Persia.

It is a great time to take your visitors if they do not have time to travel around Iran to see all these beautiful sites.

The cafe is very busy especially on weekends and evenings, and I recommend their delicious cool drinks and ice-creams.  This is one of those places that those who serve and those who are served have many social things in common including cleanliness and politeness.

In the summer they have theater and film shows in the evenings.  There are also workshops for drawing, miniature painting, calligraphy and sculpture.

Please note that there is an entrance fee of 5000 rials (about $0.50) but you don’t have to pay if you are (like me!) over 50 J

I am sure you will not be disappointed with your visit to this enchanting and pleasant garden.  I hope you’ll enjoy the photographs I have for you.

For more information please see www.artmuseumgarden.ir
Telephone: 98-21-2248-8045