Palace “Sabet Pasal” Registered in Iran’s National Heritage List

The national registration of the house known as “Sabet Pasal” Palace has been communicated to the Tehran governorate by the Cultural Heritage Organization.

According to a Wednesday, June 21 report by Mehr News Agency, Zahra Ahmadipour, Vice President and Head of the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, informed Hossein Hashemi, Governor of Tehran, of the registration of this historical monument.

In her letter to Hashemi, Ahmadipour stated that Sabet Pasal Palace is “under the protection and supervision” of the Cultural Heritage Organization and that “any interference, usurpation, or operational measure that leads to its destruction or identity alteration…is considered a crime”.

This monument has been registered nationally while Mohammad Mehdi Tandgoyan, Vice Chairman of the Architecture and Urban Planning Commission of the City Council, had criticized on June 12 that the Cultural Heritage Organization, as “the responsible body for building valuation in dealing with this palace, has remained silent”.

He described the Cultural Heritage Organization’s “silence” on the valuation of this property as “questionable” and added that “the organization could have played a more effective role in this matter with the help of the judiciary”.

One day after Tandgoyan’s criticism, Mohammad Hassan Talebian, Deputy Director of the Cultural Heritage Organization, announced that the organization had not remained “silent” on the value of Sabet Pasal Palace and had informed Tehran Municipality through a letter that “this valuable complex must be preserved”.

Sabet Pasal Palace, also known as the “Versailles” of Iran, belonged to Habibollah Sabet (known as Sabet Pasal), a renowned Iranian merchant and entrepreneur before the revolution, and was confiscated after the revolution.

The architecture of this building, which is called “Tehran’s largest house,” is based on the architectural pattern of the Petit Trianon palace in Versailles.

Mr. Pasal was a follower of the Baháʼí faith and had close relations with the royal court and the Pahlavi family. He left Iran two years before the revolution and did not return to the country after the revolution.

The matter of the destruction of this palace had been followed for some time by media and cultural heritage activists, to the extent that “Ayandeh Bank” as the buyer of this palace refrained from appropriating it and sold the property to another party.

As Mr. Tandgoyan stated, Ayandeh Bank sold the land to “a private sector entity that is apparently a subsidiary of the Executive Headquarters of the Imam’s Order,” and they brought a “plan to construct a religious-cultural complex centered on a mosque” on this land for the city council’s review and approval.

According to him, Sabet Pasal Garden was destroyed at the beginning of the revolution, and the Shahid Foundation confiscated the garden in 1980 and built Iyther City in it.

Following today’s letter from the head of the Cultural Heritage Organization regarding the national registration of this monument, any action on this property, including even its “restoration and reconstruction,” will henceforth be “possible only with the approval and supervision of this organization”.

Source: Radio Farda