Fin Garden

🕰️When was it built?

The present garden dates from the reign of Shah Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty and was enlarged under Shah Safi and Shah Abbas II. The Karimkhani retreat was added in the Zand era, and the Qajar king Fath-Ali Shah added new buildings too. So the buildings of the garden do not all come from one period.

🏛️What was it built for?

The garden was used by the court and the nobility, and its design links buildings, trees and running water. Water from the Soleymanieh spring first gathers behind the garden, and the difference in height between it and the channels carries it to the fountains without any need to lift it by hand.

👀What you will see

• The Safavid pavilion stands in the middle of the garden; some of its paintings were damaged or covered with plaster in later periods.
• The Qajar pavilion at the far end of the garden has painted ceilings and walls, and it does not sit on the axis of the Safavid pavilion.
• Channels lined with turquoise tiles carry water between the pools, and the fountains work from the difference in water level.
• The bubbling pool shows water rising through holes in its floor, unlike the pools of still water.
• Evergreen cypresses stand alongside a smaller number of plane trees; the trees are part of the garden's design too.

💡Something interesting

Amir Kabir, chief minister of Naser al-Din Shah, was killed in the Fin bathhouse on the Shah's order in 1852. That is why, for many visitors, the bathhouse has a historic importance of its own beside the garden's architecture.