Culture & arts · Shaykhantahur District

Alisher Navoi Palace of Cinema ('Panorama')

A 1962–1964 cinema with a 2,300-seat hall and one of the world's largest panoramic screens — a landmark of Tashkent modernism, on the UNESCO list since 2026.

UNESCO World HeritageSoviet era1962–196430 min1 min read

Photo: Jamshid Nurkulov · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

History

A 2-hectare plot on Navoi Street was allocated in 1958 and the design won a national competition in 1961. Built in 1962–1964, the building opened in November 1964 as the Palace of Arts, its multipurpose hall seating 2,300 — more than planned. Chief architect Sergo Sutyagin led a team including V. Berezin, Y. Khaldeev, D. Shuvaev and O. Legostaeva, with interiors by Alexander and Viktor Gan; they won the Uzbek SSR's Hamza State Prize in 1964. A second, 600-seat hall followed in 1976, the building was listed as a city monument in 1978, and on 20 June 1991 it was named after Alisher Navoi. Locals still call it the 'Panorama'.

Architecture

Two volumes make up the building: a faceted cylindrical cinema-concert hall and a two-storey glazed pavilion with the lobby and foyer. The hall's walls are thin but strong shell panels of expanded-clay concrete, which is why it came through the 1966 earthquake unscathed when other cinemas did not. Its panoramic screen — 476 m², 34 × 14 metres, curving through 146° — was among the largest in the world.

On 26 July 2026 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the serial property 'Tashkent Modernist Architecture: Modernity and Tradition in Central Asia'.