Things to do in Tabriz
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Bazaar (covered bazaar)
The magnificent, labyrinthine covered bazaar covers some 7 sq km with 24 separate caravanserais and 22 impressive timches (domed halls). Construction began over a millennium ago, though much of the fine brick vaulting is 15th century. Upon entering one feels like a launched pinball, bouncing around through an extraordinary colourful maze, only emerging when chance or carelessness dictates.
There are several carpet sections, according to knot-size and type. The spice bazaar has a few shops still selling herbal remedies and natural perfumes. A couple of hat shops (Bazaar Kolahdozan) sell traditional papakh (Azari hats, from around IR100,000,) made of tight-curled astrakhan …
reviewed
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Blue (Kabud) Mosque
Constructed in 1465, the Blue Mosque was among the most glorious buildings of its era. Once built, artists took a further 25 years to cover every surface with the blue majolica tiles and intricate calligraphy for which it’s nicknamed. It survived one of history’s worst-ever earthquakes (1727), but collapsed in a later quake (1773). Devastated Tabriz had better things to do than mend it and it lay as a pile of rubble till 1951, when reconstruction finally started. The brick superstructure is now complete, but only on the rear (main) entrance portal (which survived 1773) is there any hint of the original blue exterior. Inside is more blue with missing patterns laboriously p…
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Azarbayjan Museum
Entrance is through a great brick portal with big wooden doors guarded by two stone rams. Ground-floor exhibits include finds from Hasanlu, a superb 3000-year-old copper helmet and curious stone ‘handbags’ from the 3rd millennium BC. Found near Kerman these were supposedly symbols of wealth once carried by provincial treasurers. The basement features Ahad Hossein’s powerful if disturbing sculptural allegories of life and war. The top floor displays a re-weave of the famous Chelsea carpet, reckoned to be one of the best ever made. The original is so-called because it was last sold on King’s Rd, Chelsea, some 50 years ago, ending up in London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.…
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Valiasr's Karimkhan (Bozorg) Sq
About 4km east of Abaresan Crossing is the wealthy if architecturally neutral Valiasr District. While hardly SoHo, it's the nearest Tabriz comes to an entertainment district. The city's gilded youth sip espressos around Valiasr's Karimkhan (Bozorg) Sq and make a nightly passeggiata along pedestrianised Shahriyar St, misleadingly nicknamed Champs Elysées.
In just a few minutes here we met Iranian punks, tuft-bearded Metallica fans and even spotted a transvestite waggling his/her hips far more provocatively than any woman could dare to.
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Arg-e Tabriz
This huge brick edifice, an unmissable landmark, is a chunky remnant of Tabriz's early-14th-century citadel (known as 'the Ark'). Criminals were once executed by being hurled from the top of the citadel walls. Far-fetched local legend tells of one woman so punished who was miraculously saved by the parachute-like effect of her chador.
Ongoing construction of a stadium-sized Mosallah Mosque next door is reportedly undermining the Ark's foundations and access is usually impossible.
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Poets’ Mausoleum
Shahriyar is now commemorated much more ostentatiously with the strikingly modernist Poets’ Mausoleum. Its angular interlocking concrete arches are best viewed across the reflecting pool from the south. The complex also commemorates over 400 other scholars whose tombs have been lost in the city’s various earthquakes.
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Baliq
Fish, fish, fish. Fresh whole fish, fish kababs, fish köfte balls in the IR20,000 salad bar, fishing nets on the ceiling, little aquariums between the tables and even fish-shaped souvenir pens. Standards are excellent, the enticing décor includes log-and-rope chairs and a cave-wall trickling with water.
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Modern Tabriz Restaurant
This good-value favourite serves great kababs and excellent fried trout in a large, basement dining hall that somehow finds a successful blend of olde-worlde charm, 1960s retro and idiosyncratic kitsch. Meal prices include ‘service’, ie salad, soft drink and delicious barley-and-barberry soup.
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Revolving Restaurant
A Plexiglas elevator fires you through the Hotel Elgoli’s atrium like Charlie in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory for predictably great views. The basic charge of IR50,000 entitles you to raid the soup-n-salad bar. Then add main courses including steaks, sturgeon kababs and fried shrimp.
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Constitution House
This charming Qajar-era courtyard house is historically significant as a headquarters during the 1906–11 constitutional revolution, but although many labels are in English the numerous photos and documents are unlikely to excite non-specialist tourists.
reviewed
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Elgoli (Shahgoli) Park
Elgoli (Shahgoli) Park, 8km southeast of the centre, is popular with summer strollers and courting couples. Its fairground surrounds an artificial lake, in the middle of which a photogenic restaurant-pavilion occupies the reconstruction of a Qajar-era palace.
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Edifice
This huge brick edifice, an unmissable landmark, is a chunky remnant of Tabriz’s early-14th- centurycitadel (known as ‘the Ark’). Criminals were once executed by being hurled from the top of the citadel walls.
reviewed
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St Mary’s
Tabriz has had a Christian community almost as long as there’ve been Christians. St Mary’s is a 12th-century church mentioned by Marco Polo and once the seat of the regional archbishop.
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Measurement Museum
Measurement Museum hidden amid very ordinary apartment blocks. The brilliantly restored 160-year-old Qajar mansion is more interesting than its display of rococo German clocks and commercial scales.
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Qajar Museum
The elegant Qajar Museum within the palatial 1881 Amir Nezam House, Tabriz’s most impressive Qajar mansion with a split-level façade. It’s oddly hidden between a school and a children’s hospital.
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Hat Shops
hat shops sell traditional papakh (Azari hats, from IR100,000) made of tight-curled astrakhan wool. The better the quality, the younger the lamb sacrificed to the milliner’s art.
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Kahveteria Sonati Tarbiat
Cosy, gently romantic brick-vaulted café for tea and dates (IR10,000) served on porcelain featuring Qajar royalty. Women can smoke a qalyan here without incurring the stares of 40 bemused grey-beards.
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Honarmandan
Vaulted underground eatery with an amusing if tacky ‘sculpted’ centrepiece water-feature and a choice of tables or carpeted sitting platforms. Decent kababs and rich dizi (IR15,000).
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Restaurant Tatly
Ceilings soar to five-pointed star lamps in this renovated older building. Pizzas are typically Iranian but the ash (thick vegetable and noodle soup) is most hearty and excellent value (IR5000).
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St Mary's Church
Tabriz has had a Christian community almost as long as there've been Christians. Near the bazaar, St Mary's is a 12th-century church mentioned by Marco Polo and once the seat of the regional archbishop.
reviewed
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Linette
Warm wood tones, a pseudo-Swiss wooden chimney-breast and glass-topped inset- tables create a congenial atmosphere despite the slightly cutesy Christmas theme. Try the creamy mushroom stroganoff.
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Mosbat Cafe
Marginally the best of Valiasr’s trendy coffee shops thanks to its stylish downstairs triangular tables and wooden ‘bar’ seating. Upstairs is less appealing.
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Talar Bozorg Elgoli
This busy, surprisingly unpretentious family restaurant serves Tabrizi köfte, a local home-cooking speciality like a giant Scotch egg. Order ahead in winter.
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Sarkis Church
The relatively central Sarkis Church serves the Armenian community. It’s hidden in a basketball court behind high white gates.
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Municipal Hall
The German-designed Municipal Hall is a century-old Tabriz icon. It’s only open to the public during occasional exhibitions.
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