Nizami Museum of Azerbaijani Literature
National literature museum in a majolica-fronted building with statues of six Azerbaijani writers.
The building began in 1850 as a single-storey caravanserai on the edge of the walled city and gained a second floor in 1915, when it became the Metropol hotel. The museum itself was founded by order of 1 November 1939, marking the eight-hundredth anniversary of the poet Nizami Ganjavi. Sadikh Dadashov and Mikayil Huseynov recast the facade with arcaded loggias and blue majolica, and the doors opened to visitors on 14 May 1945.
Niches along the front hold statues of six writers: Fuzuli, Vagif, Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Khurshidbanu Natavan, Jalil Mammadguluzadeh and Jafar Jabbarly, carved by several sculptors including Fuad Abdurrahmanov and Pinkhos Sabsai. Inside, some thirty main halls and ten auxiliary rooms trace Azerbaijani writing from oral epic and medieval manuscripts to the twentieth century, drawing on a collection of around 120,000 items. A refurbishment between 2001 and 2003 added 2,500 square metres of display space.
Highlights
- Blue majolica facade with arcaded loggias
- Statues of six Azerbaijani writers in the front niches
- Around thirty main halls covering literature from epic to modern
- Collection of roughly 120,000 manuscripts, books and objects
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