The traditional houses of Kashan

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After two days spent in Kashan on the way back to Tehran I was ready to face the big smoke again. But it was not to be for as long as I imagined....

Kashan is famous for its traditional 'houses', clustered together on a few streets just outside the city centre. Many of these 19th century Qajar style palaces built by Kashan's great and good, are now empty and echoing, lit by delicate stained glass windows, the light hitting the faceted mirror decoration. Once large extended families as well as their legions of servants would have lived here.

I visited the Khan-e Abbasin and the Khan-e Tabatabei. The houses are set round a series of courtyards, demarcating private and public spaces. The Khan-e Tabatabei was built by a rich carpet seller who used the public side as a place to entertain fellow merchants, as kind of private caravanserai. The houses were full of steps to other storeys which come out unexpectedly on sheer drops to stone floors. Apparently many children when in the midst of a childhood game had overshot entrances and fell to their deaths on the floors below.

At the Khan-e Tabatabei one of the curators showed me round and pointed out where they had redone the stucco and mirror work. It is a massive job, and you could see the difference between the original and the new work, but it was clear that the old methods were being employed. He told me about plans to furnish the palaces again, which would help to conjure up the sumptuous living of that age and level of society.

I also stumbled across the artisans ‘museum’, which I decided to take a look. Can’t pass up a museum, me. This was a mistake. It was quite expensive, 20,000 rials, and as you wandered round you wondered what you were doing here. There was some information in Farsi, but almost none in English. The place seemed to have little idea of what it was for, and you left none the wiser about its message/ information. Beyond the fact that artisans had lived in Kashan, and probably still did.

I enjoyed watching the artisan at work on the street outside much more.

I also visited the Sultan Mir Ahmed Hammam, sadly no longer in use, where I was shown where men and women used to wash. Very unusually it seemed that the main room was used by the women, leaving the much smaller side room for men. The women usually get shoved in the crap bit in every old hammam I’ve been to, if they are allowed in at all, wheras the men have wonderful marble meeting spaces. So this was a welcome surprise. The women used this space to meet and celebrate rituals for new born children and other female rites of passage. The interior of the hammam, like the two I saw in Shiraz, was decorated in black and white low relief work showing plants, animals and hunting scenes. Such scenes had been part of the Persian repertoire for centuries and indeed some of these motifs could be traced back to the beginning of time in the Middle East with the Sumerians, Akkadians and Elamites.

I paid an extra 10,000 rials, probably ripped off, as entrance to the baths was only 5000, but did I bargain them down by half, to go out onto the roof. It was a strange scene looking down on the bathhouse from above. The tiny windows into the roof of the hammam have bottle glass so that no peeping Ali could spy the women in the bath. The roof strongly reminded me of Gaudi’s Park Guell with its swooping, organic and faintly alien curves.

My first night in Kashan I stayed at Sayyah Hotel. I couldn’t believe how expensive it was, I bargained them down to 270,000 but they would not budge after that. It was nowhere as nice as the lovely Hotel Iran in Esfahan, which was 70,000 cheaper. The rooms were small, the beds were soft and the atmosphere was frankly depressing. Not helped by the grumpy people on the desk.

So I had been told about the traditional house and a vague “X” marked a spot in my LP guide. First thing I did the next morning was to try and find this other hotel and I am so glad I did. It is called Ehsan historical house, I did just try their website but it does not seem to be working. On their literature it has www.ehsanhouse.com. Tel / fax [phone] Email [e-mail]

This was amazing, one of my favourite places to stay in Iran. Set round a leafy courtyard that has a pool in the middle which two men were carefully cleaning and refilling when I arrived. I chose to stay in one of the traditional Persian rooms under a ceiling of mudbrick ribbed arches on a soft Persian carpet up my own stairway. It was beautiful, had an ensuite and cost less than the other hotel (I bargained them down to 250, 000). When I found out that the costs of the hotel funded a cultural centre in the building, I did feel a little guilty as it was for a good cause. But not enough to give them more!

They give you mattresses and sheets and you simply make your own bed when you are ready. I felt like I had been transported to an exotic story, and acted accordingly lounging on pillows like the princess in a harem.

The staff were really friendly and they told me more about what they did here, running music and theatre workshops as well as having a library and a museum (which I did not see unfortunately). You can use internet on their computer and they can also order you food. I also found out more about Iranian film, from one of the staff who was passionate about it.

The house is opposite the turning to the Agha Bozorg Mosque, down a little lane. It is signposted.

The only other thing that I saw in Kashan was the bazaar… as interesting as it was, don’t be fooled as I was thinking that I could get my tourist souvenirs here. There was little I wanted to buy at the bazaar (live chickens anyone?) which as I had left much of my present shopping till the last minute… was a mistake!

Kashan is famous for its rosewater and saw a number of piped contraptions used for distilling the essence of roses.

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Comments

[philglobecroqueur]

Ehsan guest house
Hi Katherine, Like you i love so much the Ehsan Guest house, amazing place, very friendly, so friendly for me because they didn't want me to pay anything ! I was there around the en of july.