Emir's Palace in Kogon

History and architecture

Work began on 14 August 1895 on the orders of Emir Said Abdulahad Khan in New Bukhara and was completed in 1898; the town was renamed Kogon in 1935. Alexei Leontyevich Benois designed it, engineer Dubrovin managed construction, and Bukharan and Russian craftsmen built and decorated it. With its many towers, domes and columns, the palace is neo-Moorish with touches of Baroque and Empire style and Arabic motifs.

Accounts differ on why it was built: one says the emir meant it for himself but found the finished building insufficiently grand; another that it was intended for a visit by Tsar Nicholas II to the emirate. Emir Alim Khan used it as a residence by the railway station for distinguished visitors to Bukhara. It later housed the railway workers' palace of culture.