Vakil Bath | A magnificent and brilliant building

Vakil Bath | A magnificent and brilliant building

Shiraz’s Vakil Bath, with a history of 260 years, was built in the middle of 1760 in Zand dynasty, under the command of Karim Khan Zand, in the center of Shiraz province and close to other buildings like Vakil Bazaar and Vakil mosque.

interesting points of the bath’s function, is that this place was not just a normal place for cleansing, but also it was sometimes a place for noble men and personages’ meetings, negotiations of governmental and local authorities, a place for marriage proposals, wedding ceremonies and etc…. Decorations used in Vakil Bath, were inspired by Iran’s culture, from ancient culture to Safavid era.

Architecture

Having a surface area of 1100 square meters, the architecture of this building’s construction is considered to be one of the most advanced architectural principles of its time.

Bath’s entrance was built in a 2 staged form, which in the first stage you enter the bath from a small door and afterwards, by passing through a gentle slope, you’ll reach the main entrance. In order to control the cold weather’s ventilation, cloak room’s entrance was built in an angular form.

Sarbineh

Cloakroom and the place used for getting ready to enter the bath were built in octagonal form, with 8 united stone columns and a dome ceiling above them. 4 stone ponds and some platforms used for customers’ rest can be seen in it. There are appealing lime designs under the dome whose story originates from the religion, tradition, interests and dreams of the people in this region.

One of the noteworthy features of this bath is the lime usage in ceiling and walls’ decorations, which are most vase drawings. The reason of the lime usage is that the plaster could not resist the humidity.
Admirable drawings on the bath’s walls have a religious and mythical theme, which used to be explained to people in the bath by narrators.

Warm House

The features of this bath is having different sections for different social status. On the two sides of the warm house (cleansing place),two platforms were placed called Shah-Neshin, which means special for kings and the two other platforms called Hakem-Neshin, special for wealthy and known people. In the center of this section, there is a marble pond whose water was supplied by Qanat.

One of the innovations used in Vakil Bath, is creating narrow canals under the bath’s cobblestone through which at that time, vapor and hot stream passed so bath’s base would get hot sooner. Bath’s reservoir that heated the water is placed on the southern part of the warm house with two big pots.

Jaam Khaneh

Jaam Khaneh (light catcher) is one of the peculiar features placed in the ceiling in order to supply light, temperature and humidity control and convex colorful glasses (Goljaam) were used in it.

The museum of Vakil Bath

Today, this bath is transformed in to an anthropology museum and the beautiful waxen sculptures are placed all around in the bath, is the indicate of history, culture, customs and traditions in Zand dynasty.

To read this article in Persian Language Click here.

* Written by Tannaz Akbari and Translated by Arefeh Firouzan.

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