Qasr Garden Museum

Overview

This imaginative sculpture park and museum occupies two former prisons, one for criminals and one for political prisoners, and the grounds surrounding them. The architects Experimental Branch of Architecture have done a cracking job on working with the historic site, placing quirky, contemporary art-works in cells and around the landscaped gardens, which include two pleasant cafes and a mosque.
Qsar means ‘castle’ and during all of the 19th century there was a royal palace here, but it eventually ran to ruin. In the early 20th century a prison, designed to meet in-ternational standards by the Russian archi-tect Nikolai Markov, was constructed and it’s this building that forms the first part of the museum. Lawrence of Arabia was held in Qasr for a very short time, which accounts for the cut outs of his image in one cell.
A second more modern complex was where political prisoners were housed dur-ing the time of the last shah. This was the first prison liberated during the Islamic Revolution.
Tehran’s mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is so impressed with the project that he now wants to turn the city’s notori-ous Evin Prison in northwest Tehran into a similar family-friendly park.