Delgosha Garden is a beautiful historical garden of the Sassanid, Safavid and Qajar periods that is located in Shiraz. It has been registered as one of Iran’s national monuments. The Spring Festival of Geranium Flowers has also been held in this garden for many years. Situated next to a very old Ghanaat (Iranian ancient underground water canals) called Maariz Saadi and located near the Kohandjeh castle makes this garden special and unique. On the other hand, the Delgosha Garden is located just a few steps from Saadi Shirazi’s tomb, which has made it even more attractive for visitors.
Some believe that the garden’s history goes back to the Sassanid period, before Islam and some have attributed it to the Al Inju and Al Muzaffar periods. Also in the Safavid period, the Delgosha Garden was one of the most important and recreational gardens in Shiraz, according to so much that has been said about the garden in the writings and images left by European tourists. Some like the British diplomat and writer James Morier, believe that its history goes back to the Zandiyeh period but one thing we can be sure of and historical evidence also proves is that the prosperity period of this garden was in Timur Gurkani’s era.
Shiraz’s Delgosha garden is about 7.5 hectares and most of its trees are Bahar- Naranj (seville orange) and orange and what makes it famous (beside its unexampled beauty), is the fountains and the Kooshk (Persian summerhouses) in the middle of the garden, while the first Iranian Kolah Farangi mansion can be seen in the garden. There are fences all around the garden but the tall trees and the shrubs cover the fences. There are eye-catching fountains and water streams throughout the garden that reach the main kooshk. The main axis of garden is subdivided into four rectangular sections with a perpendicular axis, and the Kolah Farangi mansion is built in the center of this intersection and makes the Delgosha garden spectacular. In front of the Kolah Farangi mansion in the middle of the garden, there is a large stone Howz. The Delgosha garden does not only have orange trees. The cedar, pine and palm trees to the north of it form the “Tavous Garden”. The trees blossom from mid-April to mid-May, and their beautiful white blossoms disperse such a fragrant scent into the air that even form hundreds of meters away, anyone will enjoy it. As mentioned, the most spectacular and outstanding part of this garden is the Kooshk that had remained from Zandiyeh era. This mansion has three floors in the south and two floors in the north consisting of a hall and four Shah-neshins (a kind of traditional royal room in old Persian houses) based on the architecture of the Sassanid Bishapour palaces. The roof of the building is a simple dome. Inside the kooshk is adorned with beautiful mirrored walls, amazing oil paintings, wooden ceilings and Iranian traditional plasterworks. And all around, poems by the 13th-century poet Shurideh Shirazi, are engraved in Nastaliq (a Persian calligraphy). On the first floor there is an octagonal Howz (Iranian man- made pools) with enchanting blue tiles.
These days the mansion of the Delgasha Garden of Shiraz has become a museum and different antiques such as a Koran written on deer skin from the Seljuk era, various types of antique coins belonging to different periods of Iran’s history, stamps, antique matches, and old maps of Iran from the Achaemenid era to the Qajar era and about 40 old antique radios has been exposed to the public.
