Citadel Karim Khan

The citadel Karim Khan, located in the center of the city of Shirāz (Fārs region), was built between the years 1766 and 1767 during the reign of the Zand dynasty as an important memory. This, with an area of ​​4000 square meters, was once the residence of Karim Khān Zand (1157-1083 solar Hegira) and for this reason it became known as Karim Khāni.

The citadel building, with its brick-worked exterior facade, is a mixture of the particular Safavid architecture, the reminiscences of Takht-e Jamshid and a combination of two residential and military architectures. The interior has three iwān, six frescoed living rooms, a private hammam, some service rooms, some main wells and some gardens.

The presence of 4 towers in circular high 14 meters, each with three separate floors, two rooms on each floor and a staircase in the four corners of the building along with a ditch previously excavated around it, shows the defensive role of the structure.

The height of the walls with pinnacles is 12 meters and their thickness at the base is 3 meters. One of the four towers of this citadel was leaning like the tower of Pisa and therefore was considered one of the tourist attractions of Shirāz.

On the corners of the citadel walls there are numerous parapets, above the walls, stone gutters and loopholes in the walls to shoot and towers that have a door to the back and whose access is possible from inside the citadel.

In the external façade of the entrance a tile picture belonging to the qajaro period depicts the scene of the battle of Rostam with the white monster and above the entrance door in the internal section of the building there were also tile works that today have completely disappeared.

A few wooden pergolas have been created around the corner of the roof to prevent the reflection of light and also for ornamental purposes.
In the complex outside in the building and even in the inner courtyard, not many decorations are seen; these are only in the inner façade of the rooms and the external ones are paintings created in various designs with the brick.

The housing sections of the citadel are located in its three internal corners and in each of these we see an iwān with two stone columns that has in its two sides six rooms internally connected to each other.

These rooms have a porch, stone and tile decorations, reticulated windows with colored glass, a small room to store household items and on the walls you can see stucco ledges and a niche, illustrations, muqarnas workings in ceilings, inscriptions, etc. which gave a particular appearance to the building.

In these buildings, small corridors have been created with small rooms for the rest of the servants. In front of each iwān there are quadrangular tanks with fountain made of stone in a single block.
The water of the Karim Khān citadel was assured by that of the qanāt (underground channel) Rakan Ābad which today has deteriorated has led to the interruption of its water supply system.

The citadel Karim Khāni has a private hammam that was its most integral part and was used for the royal family's bathroom. This one, like many of the ancient hammams, has a dressing room, four platforms to sit and change, and underneath those there is the place where to put shoes and clothes.

At the center of the dressing room there is an octagonal basin and in a corner of this section a space has been created to heat the environment by means of a fire and to prepare tea and ghelyoon or hookah.

The changing room was not only the place where we changed but there were also other activities such as phlebotomy, tattoos, massages, conversation, drinking tea and smoking the ghelyoon and a corridor connected him to the garmkhāneh (calidarium) that it included three parts: the environment of the calidarium, the khazineh (small room of the hammam with a hot tub adjacent to the calidarium) and the nurkhāneh (the brightest space in the hammam); also the khazineh comprised some parts: a copper pot was placed in the center and under it the fire was lit and there were also two side tanks with warm water.

There were channels to circulate the hot air in the calidarium connected to the khazineh pot. The citadel of Karim Khān has been exposed to ruin, change, reconstruction, restoration during various periods and has had various functions such as: government residence, prison, residence of local lords, etc.