Aali Qapu Palace (original name Ala Qapi) is a building that was actually at the entrance of the Safavid state and at first had a simple shape. This building is located on the west side of Naghsh Jahan Square and in front of Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque. It is 48 meters high and has 6 floors that can be reached by spiral staircases. What has made Aali Qapu Palace one of the most magnificent and exquisite works of the Safavid era are the miniatures by the famous Safavid artist Reza Abbasi, as well as the bedspreads on the top floor of Aali Qapu Palace, whose hall is also called the “Music Room” or “Sound Room”. It becomes. Shah Abbas used to watch polo and performances in Naghsh Jahan Square from Aali Qapu Palace. He also dealt with the affairs of the country in Aali Qapu Palace and issued the necessary laws. Another use of this palace is to receive special guests of the Shah.
This palace was built in 5 stages and continued and was completed between 70 and 100 years during the time of the successors of Shah Abbas I, especially Shah Abbas II and Shah Suleiman. Even due to the existence of an inscription in Nastaliq script during the reign of Shah Sultan Hussein, the last Safavid king, the decorations of the third floor have been added or restored.
In the first stage of construction, the building is only as the entrance to other buildings and the royal palace complex. In the second stage, the need to expand the building and add the upper floors was felt due to the expansion of the capital and the increase of the urban population and the importance of making the government headquarters. For this purpose, the third, fourth and half floors of the fifth floor were added. In the third phase, the palace-shaped tower building was completed by adding the last floor (known as the music hall). In the fourth stage, a porch was added to Naghsh-e Jahan Square to increase the length of the palace, and in the fifth stage, 18 columns were added to the porch with the space created in the previous stage, in addition to creating royal stairs Copper porch.
The architect of the building was one of the famous masters and architects such as Master Ali Akbar Isfahani or Master Mohammad Reza Ibn Master Hussein Bana Isfahani, two famous architects of the Abbasi Grand Mosque and Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque.
Exterior decorations are made of bricks, which are in elastics (crescent parts at the top of each entrance) with seven-color tiles, Islamic decorations and lines, and interior decorations are made of beautiful patterns of flowers, bushes, hunting grounds, animals and birds on plaster (porcelain layer and slaughter). Or Iranian and foreign miniature paintings (in the style of Reza Abbasi) and by European painters who were present in the Safavid court during the reign of Shah Suleiman, in the style of European paintings by famous painters such as Angel Volcar.
