Ismailiyya Palace – great architecture of Baku

The Ismailiyya Palace is a historic building that today serves as the Presidium of the Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences. It is situated in Baku on Istiglaliyyat Street. The Ismailiyya Palace is one of the great architecture of Baku that built-in 1913. It was built commemoration of Ismail who was the son of Azerbaijan’s oil millionaire Musa Naghiyev after the death of Ismail from tuberculosis illness.

During his therapy in Switzerland, while visiting his son Ismail, he always looked at the Gothic style Palazzo Contarini degli Scrigni e Corfu and wanted to construct a comparable structure for his son in Baku. Ismailliya palace was built by famous polish Józef Płoszko.

Musa Naghiyev sent Polish architect Plochko to that town in 1905 to prepare the Swiss palace project to construct the future construction of Ismailli. Since this method took too long, the architect had to remain for 3 years in Switzerland. Architect Ploshko represented Agha Musa’s Venetian building project, and on December 21, 1908, at the Imam’s solemn ceremony, the construction of the Ismailliya building began. On April 7, 1913, this palace started working. Ismailiyya palace was built in the Gothic style of Veneto. The following phrases were carved with golden letters on the building’s front and side façades to show that this building was designed for the Muslim Charity Society. The following sentences were carved with golden letters on the front and side facades of the building to indicate that this building was intended for the Muslim Charity Society:

“Human rises with work, and only with the help of work he can achieve his goal.” “Work created the human.” “A person should strive for knowledge from birth to death.” “Muslims, your century dies with you. Prepare your descendants for the future.” “Strive for knowledge, in spite of the length of the way.”

Agha Musa described the stone statue at the entrance of central and angels around it as follow: “If Ismail were alive, I would have lots of grandchildren around me, like angels around the statue.”