Shapouri mansion : a café and restaurant in the heart of history

Between all historical houses  and mansions which are preserved and you can visit them in the contemporary era, some of them are more or less different among thousands of designs and plans which are inherited to the old history of Iran. The history goes back more than 3000 years. You can trace this old history in the forms and details of architecture in every corner of old fashioned cities like Shiraz. Visiting historical houses gives you an impression of how people combined beauty and functionality.

 
History of Shapouri House

 This masterpiece is a combination of classic and modern architecture and a cocktail of art and functionality in the heart of the desert of Iran.
When you compare most historical homes and sites in Iran you understand that there is a common plan and form among them which was aroused because of shortage of water and other resources in the hot climate of Iran. Most of these mansions belong to elite people but you should understand that like other countries just elite people and aristocrats had the chance , enough wealth , could afford money to make and establish such beautiful and expensive houses throughout history.

Architecture and special features of shapouri mansion

Most of the houses and mansions which remained today , were made in the center of vast gardens. Iran is located in a very hot land and shortage of water pushed the people in historical time to find out how to make a system to provide water for farming and normal activities in villages and after that in big cities like Shiraz. The best way to gather and provide water for gardens and home gardens of historical houses depending on the situation is digging a well, finding a water resource like springs or above all making a permanent system to provide water whole the year or during droughts when even the simplest form of technology in this concept was not invented or found. The best system to provide water in the desert emerged thousands of years ago in the vast empire of Iran and during and may before the Achaemenid dynasty. During the Achaemenid dynasty we had a ministry of water and water resources and the minister controlled the how and when projects were formed during the year. This minister had the responsibility to give permission to make new water resources and control and maintain the hydraulic systems and water facilities that were in control and supervision of the minister of Qanat during those days.
What is Qanat and how it works needs pages of books and because of this we explain this subject in words and very simply. A Qanat is a combination of subterranean deep channels connected together and by having many different branches the little droplets of water gather together and make a subsurface river of water from mountains in upper lands and conduct this water to the lower plains in hundred kilometers in purpose of providing permanent source of water to using the form of irrigation water or normal usage by ordinary people. The place where people could find water on the surface is named as haranj.
One of the special features of Architecture and special feathers of shapouri mansion is the water resource of this house which is forgotten today. Because the house is in the middle of the big garden there has to be a source of permanent water providing a system to supply water for garden irrigation and family usage. According to a rule at those old times the clean water from Qanat run in the ditches in the old fashion streets and from an old fashion tubing system made by potteries this water run to water reservoirs in the house and used for normal use.

The importance of maintenance of Shapouri House

As shapouri mansion is a home house like other old fashion houses, it is surrounded by walls and the building in the center which names as kooshk has been preserved in the best way. As you visit this mansion today, you cannot understand that this house has been repaired and restored many times. In front of the building you can find a big but shallow water pool which is used as a source of water to help irrigate the garden and by reflecting the image of the building in bright days the beauty of the house is twice as normal, especially in cold days of winter.
Actually the shapouri mansion is not very old and establishing the site returns to Pahlavi’s dynasty, it means its life span is too narrow and because of this the forms and functionality is more modern and recent comparing to old houses in shiraz and Isfahan, the Architecture and special features of shapouri mansion is European more and very different comparing to old fashion houses. For example the form of 12 pillars which are used in the balcony is more in western style and even having a balcony in that time shows how the art and architecture is influenced by western art and the whole two stairs building is more new and in western style because of the time and history of making the whole structure.

Current uses of Shapouri House

 Actually the shapouri house was designed and ordered by one of the wealthy merchants known as “ Abdulsaheb shapouri” during Pahlavi’s dynasty. Until recently this house belonged to  that family and in the hands of the private section of the society, after years the family left the house and the importance to maintenance and lack of enough budget pushed the family to sell the house to the cultural heritage ministry.
Fortunately the cultural heritage ministry had enough money and human resources to maintain and repair the old house and today the shapouri mansion is like a gem in the historical houses of Shiraz. Today the functionality of Shapouri house is changed to a very big and high quality restaurant and café which is famous between old and new generations. You can find the best food and beverage in this restaurant while visiting the garden and other parts of the house. If you want to eat something in Shiraz, this restaurant which is located in Anvari Avenue near Ahli Street is one of the best choices and highly recommended by gluttonous people. As mentioned above the building is not very old and the current uses of this place have totally changed but visiting the whole structure shows the beauty and functionality of the building. The 12 pillars in structure and building is very beautiful and even the balcony itself and its pillars are new parts added to the building because in old historical houses you cannot find such an element and it shows how the architect had western motives in his mind how he mixed those elements to the natural and historical old fashion architectural elements together. The staircase in the center of the building is one of the other anomalies in the whole building but looking at this part adds more beauty to the building and its ornamental objects in modern architecture and history. Today most of the rooms and halls are refurbished and their functionality is changed after changing this normal house to a big restaurant. From the other time even in old times when architects changed the traditional form and many rooms had multifunctional use and because of this the architects did not look at this house as a very old fashion or traditional house. Instead this house is more modern and compared to other houses is more western style and more functional in the modern world today.
The shapouri house is different from other points too. We should understand most of the houses in Iran were functional and from the other side most of the structural elements in Persian architecture are symmetrical. For instance the very primitive mosques which they were made in first centuries after introducing Islam to Iran there was just one minaret according to the Arabs point of view, even today many sunni mosques have just one minaret but after centuries the Iranian points of view pushed the architects to make new mosques with two or more minarets to follow the rule of symmetry in the Iranian art and architecture.
Actually we like and use even numbers and because of this we like symmetry in all forms and structures. In old houses and old structures you can find this symmetry and all the things follow this rule. But in shapouri house this rule is broken and in a way because of modernization and accepting the western styles and forms in architecture even the garden patches are not symmetrical and the forms of the gardens are different.
These asymmetrical forms made the shapouri unique and it was worth it to visit among all attractions in Shiraz. On the other hand, fortunately the quality of food in this restaurant is unique and it is worth having a traditional food or even western food in the old fashioned atmosphere of a garden on a hot day of summer.
In this restaurant they can eat many traditional and western foods in high quality. You should taste the foods of Iran and Shiraz there to understand what I am talking about. Next time you intend to visit Iran, Fars and Shiraz, never forget to visit shapouri mansion with Sana Persian and enjoy current uses of this place and look how the architects changed the functionality of this house in the modern world.