Shahyad Tower Awaiting Repairs - CAIS Archaeological & Cultural News of Iranian World©

LONDON, (CAIS) -- Despite warnings about the urgent need to repair Tehran’s Shahyad-e Aryamehr (Shahyād-e Aryāmehr) , no action has been taken so far to reinforce the structure which was built in 1971 in commemoration of the 2500th anniversary of the Imperial regime which became the symbol of the capital. In 1980 Islamic regime changed its name to Āzādi (freedom) tower. It is 50 metres (148 feet) tall and is completely clad in cut marble.

Mehdi Memarzadeh, technical supervisor of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO), told CHN that Shahyad Tower is in a critical state and its foundation is being threatened by water seepage and is facing gradual destruction. Fragments of the outer parts of the tower are fallen apart owing to aging and lack of repair in the past 35 years since its construction.

While Tehran Municipality has earmarked a significant sum for repairing the tower, the lack of coordination among ICHTO, Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and Tehran Municipality has delayed the start of repair works.

Memarzadeh contended that for the time being survival of Shahyad Tower is directly linked to coordination of the organs mentioned above and any negligence in this respect would be detrimental to the cultural heritage.

He said that repair of the tower has been postponed for several years because there was no clarity in terms of its realm and legal boundaries. It took a long time to clarify the specifications of the tower and in the next stage there was difficulty in providing funds for repair, he said.

However, currently the fund is available and the three organs--Municipality, ICHTO and Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance should come to terms on the repair of Shahyad Tower, he said.

Qadir Afravand, deputy head of Tehran province Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department in charge of protection and revival of cultural heritage, said that in case of coordination among respective organs, practical steps would be taken to repair the tower in the year to March 2007.

The architect was Hossein Amanat who had won a competition to design the monument. Shahyad combines the Sasanian and post-Sasanian Iranian architecture styles. It is a part of the Shahyad cultural complex, located in nowadays Tehran's Azadi square in an area of some 50,000 m². There is a museum and several fountains underneath the tower.

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