Iran is a country of sites more than museums. Each city has its historical or anthropological museum (of very variable interest), cities like Isfahan or Tabriz have several museums, and the great pilgrimage mausoleums of Mashhad and Qom each have their museum, presenting the precious objects of the sanctuary. However, the most important set of museums is in Tehran, and the museums mentionned below are especially recommended.
Museums & Galleries
Crowns and thrones at the Jewels Museum, Tehran. Photograph: ©Jewelry Museum.
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRAN OR IRAN BASTAN MUSEUM
The main museum in the capital: one building is dedicated to the arts of Iran before Islam, another building to the arts of the Islamic period.
Several museums have been installed in the historic palace of Tehran (18th-19th century), made up of several buildings surrounding a garden.
A priceless collection of precious objects and gems, belonging to Iranian royalty, and housed in the Iranian Central Bank bunker.
Featuring a collection of pre-Islamic art, this remarkable museum is best known for its collection of calligraphy, manuscripts and ceramics.
Managed by the Mashhad Mausoleum Foundation (Astan-e Qods-e Razavi), it mainly presents paintings and calligraphies.
THE GLASS AND CERAMICS MUSEUM or ABGINEH
A beautiful mansion from 1915 houses a collection of very well presented objects.
THE MUSEUMS OF SA’D ABAD PALACE
The palace complex belonging to the ancient Pahlavi dynasty (1925-1979), to the north of the city, has been transformed into several museums, of varying quality and importance. The most important are the Green Palace, the White Palace and the Museum of Fine Arts.
Less important than the Sa’d Abad palace complex, the Niavaran Palace also belonged to the former king Pahlavi and houses, in a few small rooms, an art collection assembled by the former empress, Farah Diba.
THE CARPET MUSEUM
Opened in 1978 in a building imitating the shape of a loom, this museum presents a collection of urban or nomadic rugs, from the 16th to the 20th century.
Inaugurated in 1977, it preserves an important collection of Iranian and Western works from the 20th century, unfortunately visible in a very partial and random manner.
Opened in 1937, the Iran Bastan Museum (or National Museum of Iran) was the first museum built in Iran, during the era of Reza Shah. Built by a French archaeologist, André Godard, its facade imitates the Sassanid palace of Ctesiphon (6th century), today in Iraq. Photograph: ©Patrick Ringgenberg.