Junqan Castle in the province of Lorestan (Shahr Kurd), 1902 AD.
Junqan Castle or Sardar Asaad Bakhtiari Palace is located in the Junqan town of Parson City, Shahr Kurd Governorate, within the Greater Lorestan Region, southeast of Kurdistan. The castle is 40 km southwest of the city of Shahr Kurd. Junqan Castle was built in the year 1902 AD. By order of Ali Quli Khan Sardar Asaad Bakhtiari, and on the ruins of the house of his father, Hussein Quli Khan Ilkhani 1821-1882 AD, leader of the Kurdish Bakhtiari tribe. Where Ali Quli Khan Sardar Asaad, who was born in the same house, rebuilt and expanded it as a palace in the French architectural style of the nineteenth century AD. And it was known as Sardar Asaad Bakhtiari Palace, and later it was called Junqan Castle. And the aim of building this palace was to take it as a place of residence, as well as to conclude commercial contracts for the nobles of the Bakhtiari tribe with the English in it,
And also to bring the points of view closer between the notables and nobles of the Bakhtiari tribe and unite them, Ali Quli Khan Sardar Asaad Bakhtiari opened the first school in the history of the town of Junqan whose building is still standing on the western side of the castle of Junqan, and it is the Asaad School. Junqan Castle or Sardar Asaad Bakhtiari Palace is the first place in the history of Shahr Kurd to be equipped with electric motors. The historical importance of Junqan Castle comes from the fact that the leaders of the Knights of the Bakhtiari Kurdish tribe of Lyria, during the constitutional conditional revolution against Muhammad Ali Shah Qajar, met in the year 1909 AD, inside this castle under the leadership of Ali Quli Khan Sardar Asaad Bakhtiari.
And they took the decision to rise up against the Qajars and seize the city of Isfahan and expel its ruler, Masoud Mirza Zal Sultan bin Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar, who killed the leader of the tribe, Hussein Quli Khan Ilkhani Bakhtiari earlier, And after seizing the city of Isfahan, Ali Quli Khan Sardar Asaad Bakhtiari Ibn Hussain Quli Khan Ilkhani Bakhtiari led an army of 2,000 horsemen from the Bakhtiari Kurdish cavalry, conquering Tehran and overthrowing the rule of Muhammad Ali Shah Qajar as well, in addition to that, he found many refugees Politicians fleeing the Qajar rule during the First World War from this palace as a shelter for them, who began writing his famous dictionary on the Persian language (Lagatnama) in this palace, Junqan Castle consists of two floors in the form of a rectangle, and in the past it contained an area wider than its area However, with the passage of time and due to various natural and social factors during more than a hundred years, as well as the lack of interest in the main foundations and the inappropriate uses of them, such as taking them as a gendarmerie station, as a public library, and as a school, all buildings, except for the main part of the castle, were exposed. And the structures attached to it were severely damaged, and they were destroyed in the year 1988 AD, and an area of land of 1226 square meters was added to it, which includes surrounding gardens and a round water basin located in the facade of the castle or the palace, and the total area of the castle with its water basin and gardens 1400 square meters, the upper floor of Junqan Castle in its eastern, southern and northern sides contains stone columns and various brick works, while the western side of the castle is a simple wall without columns, and the ceilings of the castle rooms are covered with wooden panels in a beautiful engineering way, and it is located The lower floor of the castle is one meter deep from the grounds of the courtyard, accessible from the bottom of the stairs of this floor. All the rooms of this floor have wall-mounted fireplaces with simple plaster. The exterior facade of the lower floor contains stone carvings with rectangular geometric designs and Rhombic and the edges of the windows and iwan also, decorated with Islamic designs, and the external facade of the castle stands on six pairs of stone columns installed above the basement floor, the base of the columns is pink, and their trunks are simple and polished, and you find the upper sections of the quadrangular columns, while the lower parts For the columns, it consists of cut pieces connected to the columns with a prominent cornice. The upper area of the main corridor door of the castle is decorated with wooden plants, metal inscriptions, and plants in the form of a flower. On the eastern side of the castle, there is a high entrance with a visible crescent ceiling of two floors, and on either side there are rooms for guarding and monitoring. 60 centimeters. Jungan Castle is currently used as a museum for the constitutional conditional period in the days of the Qajar rule.[1] [2]