Caravanserai (Orenburg)

The Caravanserai in Orenburg is a historical and architectural complex at 6 Parkovy Prospekt, built between 1837 and 1846 to a design by architect Alexander Bryullov, to house the office of the commander of the Bashkir-Meshcheryak army, a hostel, and schools for Bashkirs and Mishars.

History

The complex was built with voluntary donations on the initiative of Orenburg's military governor Vasily Perovsky. Bryullov styled the layout after a traditional Bashkir aul (village): at its center stands an octagonal mosque 12.6 meters in diameter, shaped like a yurt, next to a 38.76-meter minaret and the main building, which held the office, barracks, and a school for Bashkir children. Built in an early-eclectic style with Eastern motifs, the complex was officially opened on 30 August 1846.

After the Bashkir army administration was abolished in 1865, the complex passed to provincial authorities — illegally, in the view of the Bashkir public. Over the years it housed various provincial institutions; in 1920 the Bashkir Pedagogical College opened here, the Bashkir Institute of Public Education operated in the building, and Bashkir government bodies were temporarily based here.

Soviet Period and Today

A planetarium operated in the mosque building from 1936 to 1991. In 1960 the Caravanserai was declared an architectural monument of state significance; today it is a cultural heritage site of federal significance.

From the late 1980s the Bashkir community sought the complex's return and its conversion into a Bashkir cultural center for Orenburg Oblast. The building is now shared by Orenburg Oblast and the Republic of Bashkortostan: it houses a working mosque and the Orenburg Oblast Chamber of Commerce and Industry, surrounded by a park.

The complex remains a monument of history and architecture significant to both Orenburg and Bashkortostan, and it is mainly for this that visitors search for and come to see it.