Tashkent’s Romanov Palace
In the heart of Tashkent is a very picturesque and unusual building: the Palace of Prince Romanov, designed by renowned 19th-century architects Alexey Benois and Wilhelm Heintzelman.
Text by Fatima Abdieva
Photos by Rustam Sharipov
The Romanov Palace is a one-storey, late Modernist residence near Tashkent’s Amir Temur Square. It was built in 1891 for the Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov, the grandson of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I. He had been exiled to the Turkestan region in 1877 by order of the royal family after he allegedly stole his mother’s diamonds to give to his mistress. Known locally as “Knyaz” (Prince) Romanov, he lived there until his death in 1918.
The residence was built in the fashionable Modernist style of the time: an elegant house richly adorned with carved lattices, unusually shaped windows, towers and other decorative elements. The duke was a passionate hunter, so the front entrances to the mansion were outfitted with bronze figures of deer and hunting dogs. The back of the building exited into a large garden laid out by the famous Tashkent botanist and pharmacist I. I. Krause.
Special attention was paid to the interior decor of the palace. The halls were lined with dark oak and decorated with carved cornices and gold paintings. Three doors led from the main hall to the apartments of the duke and his wife. On the left side of the house was a billiard room, library and dining room, and on the right, a greenhouse and a Japanese garden. In one of the wings, the Russian prince arranged a menagerie in which wild animals endemic to the area were collected. On Sundays, the menagerie was open to the public.
Nikolai Konstantinovich was extremely popular among the locals. He opened the first cinema “Khiva” in the city, as well as a bakery, and built a princely soldier's settlement in the centre of Tashkent. He installed irrigation canals and owned several enterprises, including a soap factory, photographic workshops, a rice processing factory and cotton manufacturers. During his years spent in Tashkent, the duke amassed a unique collection of antiques and books, which he later bequeathed to the city
Before his death in 1918, the duke donated his palace to the city of Tashkent on the condition that a museum be established in the palace. For a long time, it operated as the Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan, with the extensive and attention-grabbing European and Russian paintings collected by the former owner. However, the fate of the house has changed more than once, and later, it became the Museum of Antiques and Jewelry of Uzbekistan. After Uzbekistan gained independence, the building was renovated and used as a reception House for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 2020, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, signed a decree for another restoration of the mansion. International experts and UNESCO specialists have been involved in the study of the cultural heritage site and its restoration. There are plans to open a branch of the State Museum of Art upon the building’s completion.
