A visit to Moghadam Museum in downtown Tehran

Moghadam Museum is a historic building and part of Tehran’s Qajar dynasty’s few remaining and well intact villas near the bazaar area and 30 Tir Street in the city.

The history of the house dates back to the 1800s and is a perfect specimen of the city’s architecture from that era. Formerly belonging to Ehtesab ol-Molk, a vizier in the Qajar court of Nasseradin Shah. Upon his death, the building was passed on to his son Mohsen Moghadam and French wife Salma, according to historical notes.

Moghadam was a famous person in his own right, as well as an archaeologist with many tiles from his discoveries adoring the walls of the mansion.

Mohsen loved painting since childhood. He studied painting at Kamal-ol-Molk School. He can even be seen in Kamal-ol-Molk’s famous picture of his class. Later together with his brother Hassan, Mohsen was sent to Switzerland to study painting. He returned to Iran during the WWII, but left again, this time to study history and archaeology.

On returning home, he began to travel with archaeological groups to various historical sites such as Deylaman and Susa as a supervisor.

The couple both adored history and culture and dedicated their lives to collecting historical objects from around Iran and abroad. The family bequeathed the family home and its treasures to Université Tehran, as it was known when it was originally created at the end of the 19th century. During the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the first of the two last kings the government at the time created a new word in Persian for higher learning called “Daneshgah”.

The building is stocked with many of the objects from the couple’s finds across the country, and its gardens are a reminder of Tehran’s once quiet and lush history.

Where is Moghaddam Museum?

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