Museum of the Qasr Prison

Qasr prison was originally built in 1790 as Qajar Palace with extensive gardens of which nothing but the names remain, during the reign of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. In 1929 it was repurposed as a prison, the first modern detention center in the country, in which prisoners had legal rights.{{cite web | url=http://www.payvand.com/news/05/jan/1013.html | title=Iranian Political Prisoner Cells to Turn into a Museum | publisher=Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency | work=Peyvand News | date=March 1, 2005 | access-date=December 26, 2017}} Nikolai Markov, a Russian architect who settled in Iran after the Russian Revolution, did the reconstruction, combining urban industrial design with traditional Iranian features such as adobe bricks, which became known as Markovian bricks. It had 192 rooms for 700 prisoners, of which about 100 cells were solitary. Here Ahmad Ahmadi, known to prisoners simply as "Dr Ahmadi" administered lethal air injections to several of Reza Shah's many opponents, such as the poet Mohammad Farrokhi Yazdi. After Reza Shah was overthrown by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, Ahmadi himself was tried for the murders and executed in 1943.

For Mohammad Reza Shah, it served as a torture and execution chamber for extreme political crimes which by the late 1970s was extensively reformed by the Red Cross into what was described a "hotel" by the staff. In its cells Ayatollah Khomeini, Ali Khamenei, Morteza Motahhari and Ayatollah Taleqani were held. On 11 February 1979 1,000 women were released from the prison. Following the 1979 Revolution, many civil and military officials of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi were detained and executed at the prison, including Nader Jahanbani and Amir Hossein Rabi'i;{{cite news|title=Shah's air force chief executed|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vfZBAAAAIBAJ&pg=6770,1232709&dq=amir+hossein+rabii&hl=en|access-date=31 July 2013|newspaper=The Telegraph-Herald|date=9 April 1979|agency=UPI|location=Tehran}} Major General Manuchechr Khosrodad{{cite web | url=https://www.iranrights.org/memorial/story/-3306/manuchehr-khosrodad | title=Manuchehr Khosrodad: One Person's Story | publisher=Abdorrahman Boroumand Center | work=Human Rights & Democracy for Iran | access-date=December 26, 2017}} and Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveida{{cite web

| last =Milani

| first =Abbas

| author-link = Abbas Milani

| title =The fall guy: Biography of ill-fated Prime Minister Hoveyda, excerpt from Chapter One of The Persian Sphinx: Amir-Abbas Hoveyda and the Riddle of the Iranian Revolution

| work =The Iranian

| publisher =Abadan Publishing Co.

| date =June 5, 2000

| url =http://www.iranian.com/Books/2000/June/Hoveyda/index.html

| access-date = December 26, 2017 }}{{cite book | title=Eminent Persians, Volume 1 | publisher=Syracuse University Press | author=Milani, Abbas | author-link=Abbas Milani | year=2008 | pages=204 | isbn=978-0-81560-907-0 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ixU33FaG_dgC&q=193 | chapter=Amir-Abbas Hoveyda}} were imprisoned at Qasr before being executed on the roof of Refah School, where Khomeini had set up his headquarters.

In subsequent decades the prison fell into disuse till in 2005 it was announced by the ICHTO that the compound would become a museum. In 2008 it was donated to the municipal government. Reopened in 2012, the former prison buildings and offices were turned into museum buildings, surrounded by a public park which carries the same name.{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/feb/11/qasr-prison-iran-pictures | title=From palace to prison: Iran's Qasr – in pictures | work=The Guardian / The Tehran Bureau |author1=Marketa Hulpachova |author2=Sourena Parham | date=February 11, 2016 | access-date=December 26, 2017}}{{cite web | url=https://www.tripadvisor.co.nz/Attraction_Review-g293999-d4553615-Reviews-Ghasr_Garden_Museum-Tehran_Tehran_Province.html | title=Ghasr Garden & Museum (Tehran) - All You Need to Know Before You Go (with Photos) | publisher=TripAdvisor | access-date=December 26, 2017}} It hosts many cultural events such as the Nowrooz festival. According to the Iranian Students News Agency Qasr was named the most creative museum in the country in 2013.{{cite web | url=https://www.archdaily.com/381379/qasr-garden-museum-arash-mozafari | title=Qasr Garden Museum / Experimental Branch of Architecture | publisher=ArchDaily | date=June 5, 2013 | access-date=December 26, 2017}}

باغ موزه قصر - زندان سیاسی.jpg|Museum of the Qasr Prison

Qasr Museum (Qasr Prison) 1.png|Qasr Museum

Qasr Museum (Qasr Prison) 2.png|Museum of the Qasr Prison

Qasr Museum (Qasr Prison) 3.png|Qasr Museum

Qasr Museum (Qasr Prison) 4.png|A small pavilion, the only remaining structure of the Qajar Palace Complex.

Qasr Museum (Qasr Prison) 5.png|An entrance to the park.

{{Portal|Iran}}

• National Garden, Tehran
• National Museum of Iran
• Ferdows Garden

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Category:Museums in Tehran

Category:Prisons in Iran

Category:Buildings and structures in Tehran

Category:Prison museums in Asia