Azerbaijan Carpet Museum

Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum

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Established	1967
Location	Mikayil Huseynov Street 28, Baku, Azerbaijan
Coordinates	40°21′35″N 49°50′07″E / 40.35972°N 49.83528°E / 40.35972; 49.83528Coordinates: 40°21′35″N 49°50′07″E / 40.35972°N 49.83528°E / 40.35972; 49.83528
Type	Museum
Director	Shirin Malikova
Public transit access	M 1 Icheri Sheher metro station
Website	www.azcarpetmuseum.az

Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum (Azerbaijani: Azərbaycan Milli Xalça Muzeyi, formerly called the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum) is a museum located in Baku that displays Azerbaijani carpets and rugs of various weaving techniques and materials from various periods.^[1] It has the largest collection of Azerbaijani carpets in the world.^[2] First opened on Neftchiler Avenue in 1967, it moved to a new building on the Baku's seafront park in 2014.^[3]

History[]

Former building of the museum, now the Juma Mosque

The museum was established in 1967 and was initially located in the Juma Mosque in Icheri Sheher. The mosque was built in the 15th century and renovated in the 19th century. Its first exhibition was held in 1972. In 1992, after the collapse of USSR, the museum was moved to the second floor of what is now the Baku Museum Center,^[4] a building that had originally been the Lenin museum.^[5] The collection was named in honour of the carpet designer Latif Karimov.

Plans to move the collection to a new purpose-built began in 2010, and a new building was due to open in late 2012^[6] with a visit being made by President Ilham Aliyev in September 2013.^[7] The museum opened on 26 August 2014, as the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, dropping its much longer official title.^[8]

Building[]

Side of the building

The structure of the building is intended to look like a rolled carpet. Designed by Austrian architect Franz Janz, the building took over six years to construct. The previous structure, a building of historical significance, was destroyed to make way for the new building.^[9]

Collection[]

Items in the collection

The collection of the museum includes over 10,000 items of ceramics, metal works of the 14th century, jewellery from the Bronze Age, carpets and carpet items from the 17th-20th centuries, national garments and embroidery, and applied art works of the Modern Age.^[10] The museum organizes public lectures and study courses on carpets and applied arts. It has a book store selling books on Azerbaijani crafts and carpet art.^[2] The museum also holds a permanent collection from the Shusha Museum of History, from the city of Shusha. Some of the exhibited items from the Shusha museum were part of 600 carpets moved out of the museum before Shusha was captured by Armenian troops in 1992. They are now displayed at the museum in an exhibition titled "Burned Culture".^[5]

International exhibitions[]

The museum does research and public service work. Every year, state and international exhibitions are organized and catalogues on carpets are printed by the museum. The museum has also held exhibitions in more than 30 countries including France, Germany, England, Japan, the Netherlands. In 1998, the museum participated in a UNESCO-organized exhibition in Paris dedicated to Fuzûlî and in 1999 dedicated to the 1,300th anniversary of the Book of Dede Korkut and displayed carpets, folk applied art items, including copper jugs, mugs, buckets and saddle-bags.^[5]

See also[]

• Azerbaijan State Museum of Art
• Azerbaijan State Museum of History

References[]

External links[]

• Azerbaijan Carpet Museum at Google Cultural Institute
• Azerbaijani Carpets
• Carpet Weaving in Azerbaijan