Sights in Şәki
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Çingis Klubu
The much more polished Çingis Klubu celebrates TV journalist and national hero Çingis Mustafayev who died in 1992 filming the Karabakh war. Photos of his life are complemented by a small but very well-chosen gallery of modern Azerbaijani paintings. A basement ethnographic room illustrates typical crafts. There’s also an air-conditioned cinema, whose 6pm screenings usually have English subtitles. Most films shown are somewhat more intellectual than typical Azerbaijani movie-house offerings.
reviewed
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Khan’s Palace
Şəki’s foremost ‘sight’ is the two-storey Khan’s Palace, which was finished in 1762. It’s set in a walled rose garden behind two huge plane trees supposedly planted in 1530. The unique façade is decorated with silvered stalactite vaulting and geometric patterns in dark-blue, turquoise and ochre, magnificently setting off the intricate wood-framed, stained-glass windows known as şəbəkə.
reviewed
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Karavansaray
Karavansaray is an historic caravanserai with a twin-level arcade of sturdy arches enclosing a pretty central courtyard. Stride through the somewhat daunting wooden gateway door and if questioned say you’re heading for the restaurant in the garden behind, a lovely place for a cuppa with a slice of Şəki’s signature halva (pastry with nuts; opposite).
reviewed
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Museum of National Applied Art
Across the road is a late-19th-century Russian church in unusual cylindrical form, built on the site of a 6th-century Caucasian Albanian original. It now hosts the limited Museum of National Applied Art that displays fairly haphazard collections of Şəki crafts, including metalwork, pottery and embroidery. Hardly worth the money.
reviewed
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Şəbəkə Workshop
More interesting is a Şəbəkə Workshop, where local craftsmen (no English) assemble traditional stained-glass windows, slotting together hundreds of hand-carved wooden pieces to create intricate wooden frames without metal fastenings. Small examples are sold as souvenirs.
reviewed
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Raşidbey Әfəndiyev Historical-Regional Ethnography Museum
The Raşidbey Әfəndiyev Historical-Regional Ethnography Museum, is more impressive than its exhibits: archaeological oddments, ethnographical artefacts and the usual emotive panels on WWII, Karabakh and the Xocalı massacre.
reviewed
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House Museum
The lovers of perversely off-beat attractions can nonetheless admire Raşidbey Әfəndiyev's spectacles, family portraits and the textbooks which he penned at his loveably prosaic house museum.
reviewed