The fountain of Bakhchisaray: a typical plumbing structure or a symbol of romanticism?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The fountain of Bakhchisaray, or, as it is also called, the “fountain of tears”, was built in 1764 by the Persian architect Omer, who specializes in the construction of luxurious buildings for the powerful. It is difficult to say why the representative of Shiite Iran took up the job for one of the Turkish satellites - the Crimean Khan. The fact is that the antagonism between Turkey and Iran (Persia) had not only political, but also ideological roots.

The Shiite branch of Islam that dominated Iran had some theological differences from the Sunnism adopted in the Ottoman Empire and its allies and subjects. Declaring each other heretics, the two states waged endless wars from the beginning of the sixteenth century. However, since the forties of the eighteenth century, a seventy-five-year truce has come. Perhaps, using it, the famous Persian architect went to the Crimea and became a "guest worker",having created a small miracle - the Bakhchisarai fountain.

Bakhchisaray, the current Crimean regional center, in the past was the capital of the Crimean Khanate, which brought a lot of trouble to its northern neighbors - Russia, Ukraine and the Commonwe alth. The Krymchaks also raided the lands of the Caucasus.

In Bakhchisarai was the residence of the Crimean Khan - a beautiful palace, already in our time listed as cultural monuments of global significance. In an effort to embody their ideas of paradise on earth, Muslim architects created a "palace-garden" (as the name of the city of Bakhchisaray is translated from the Crimean Tatar language). And the city itself owes its appearance to the beginning of the construction of the palace. When, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Crimean Khan found his headquarters too tight, he decided to build a new one.

There are two fountains in the Khan's palace. One of them is called "golden" because of the gold covering of the ornament, which symbolizes the Garden of Eden. The second was called the "fountain of tears" because of the romantic legend that Pushkin heard during his Crimean trip. According to legend, one of the khan's wives poisoned another, to whom the ruler of Crimea was more favorable. Grieving for the loss, the khan ordered the construction of a "fountain of tears". Thanks to Pushkin's talent, this story was transformed into a well-known work that describes the conflict between the Georgian Zarema and the Lithuanian Maria, which ended in the death of the latter.

"The Fountain of Tears" received the literary name "Bakhchisarai Fountain" after the title of the poem. When Pushkinvisited Bakhchisarai, he was a little over twenty, the most romantic age. Considering that Alexander Sergeevich was also a poet, that is, a doubly romantic, the story he heard could not but impress him, he could not but create a poem about the fountain of Bakhchisaray! Pushkin wrote this short work for two years. Finished in 1823 and saw the light of day in 1824.

It must be said that in terms of architecture the fountain of Bakhchisaray is nothing original, structures of this type are widespread in the Muslim world. The famous painting by Karl Bryullov, inspired by Pushkin's poem, gives an absolutely wrong idea of the appearance of the fountain, which in reality looks more like a typical plumbing structure.

But that's the strength of the master! No wonder the honorary title of "creator of the modern Russian literary language", according to most literary critics, was awarded to Pushkin! Thanks to the talent of a genius, the Bakhchisarai fountain has become a symbol of romanticism from an ordinary element of park architecture.