Emir of Bukhara House: A Former Summer Residence in Zheleznovodsk

Site at a Glance

Rating

★4.4

Popularity

Low

Country

Russia

Primary era

Modern

Eras represented

Modern

Civilizations

Emirate of Bukhara, Russian

Site type

Domestic

Remains

Palace

History

Emir of Bukhara House is a palace in Zheleznovodsk, Russia, built for the ruler of the Central Asian Emirate of Bukhara between 1907 and 1912 in an eclectic style that combined pseudo-Moorish forms with elements of Russian dacha modernism. It served as the emir’s summer residence in the Caucasian Mineral Waters and became his second major residence in Russia after his palace in Yalta.

Creation of the summer residence

The emir frequently visited the Caucasian Mineral Waters before deciding to establish a permanent seasonal residence there. An area of 0.77 hectares was assigned to him by imperial order in 1905. Civil engineer Vladimir Nikolayevich Semenov designed the palace, while Ivan Ivanovich Baikov, chief architect of the administration of the Caucasian Mineral Waters, directed construction with civil architect V. F. Zimmerman. Craftsmen from Bukhara and Khorezm also contributed to the building’s decoration.

When the palace was completed, Baikov and Zimmerman commissioned a silver dish for the traditional bread-and-salt ceremony welcoming its new owner, Emir Alim-Khan. Alim-Khan had become the final emir of Bukhara in 1910, after the death of his father.

Transfer to charitable use

In 1913, amid unrest in Bukhara, Alim-Khan transferred the palace to the Empress Maria Feodorovna Charitable Society. The decision also followed the death of a worker during construction, which the emir regarded as a bad omen. The transfer commemorated the tercentenary, or three-hundredth anniversary, of the Romanov dynasty. The former residence was converted into a charitable sanatorium for female teaching personnel, and the sanatorium opened in 1914.

The First World War interrupted the sanatorium’s operation, and the building became a military hospital. After the 1917 Revolution, it returned to sanatorium use. From 1920 it housed an 80-bed Tsusstrakh sanatorium, followed in the 1930s through the 1950s by Sanatorium No. 41 of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions. Its name changed to “Udarnik” in the early 1960s.

War damage and later institutional history

Military operations in the North Caucasus during 1942 and 1943 damaged the former emir’s residence. The surviving building subsequently housed Hospital No. 2164/5435. In the 1970s, the palace became part of the Ernst Thälmann Sanatorium. Ernst Thälmann was a German communist politician whose name was given to the sanatorium.

A decision of the Executive Committee of the Stavropol Regional Soviet, dated 1 October 1981, designated the northern building of the Ernst Thälmann Sanatorium, formerly the emir’s residence, as a monument of federal historical significance. The designation noted stays by Clara Zetkin in 1924 and by Maria Ulyanova and Nadezhda Krupskaya in 1929. In 2017, the palace was leased for 49 years to a company operating in the Caucasian Mineral Waters for conversion into a hotel. It remains a protected cultural-heritage monument of federal significance in Russia.

Remains

The surviving palace is a two-storey brick building with a complex plan and a richly decorated exterior. Its eclectic design combines pseudo-Moorish architecture, associated with Islamic traditions of North Africa and Muslim Spain, with dacha modernism, an early twentieth-century Russian style linked to country houses. The ensemble includes formal reception spaces, service areas, an inner courtyard, and the remains of a larger estate enclosed by a cast-iron fence.

Palace exterior and formal entrance

The main facade is organized around a rectangular tower with a balcony that functions as a minaret, a pishtaq, or tall framed entrance facade, and a square corner tower topped by a dome and accompanied by a veranda. Bukhara and Khorezm craftsmen produced carved Uzbek ornaments for the building, while ceramic tiles carry floral arabesques, flowing vegetal designs used as architectural decoration.

The formal entrance consists of a semicircular arcade supported by cast-iron columns with Moorish capitals and a stepped base. A multi-flight stone staircase leads up to the arcade and is decorated with lion sculptures. The estate was bounded by a cast-iron fence, and its southeastern side had an entrance portal with a rectangular opening and wooden doors. An inscription above the entrance conveyed the meaning “Welcome!”

Interior arrangement and alterations

The palace has numerous stairways, corridors, and passageways arranged within a complicated plan. Its formal section contains rooms intended for audiences. Surviving interior decoration includes finished ceilings, while the drawing room retains a large tiled fireplace.

Several alterations changed the relationship between the original parts of the ensemble. An openwork bridge connecting the palace to the service rooms was replaced by an enclosed corridor. A first-floor facade wall was fitted with a window containing modern cut-outs, and a rectangular sanatorium club building was inserted into the inner courtyard.

Estate buildings

The wider estate included a harem and service structures such as a stable, icehouses, and rooms for servants. These elements formed part of the palace compound’s domestic and operational arrangement, extending beyond the principal two-storey residence.