Sardar Asa’d Bakhtiari Palace is placed in Jounqan city, Farsan town, Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari province. Known also as Jounqan Fortress or Jounqan Castle, it is the memorial of the end of Qajar period. The castle has been registered in the list of Iran National Heritages.
Sardar Asa’d Palace had been the house of his family. He decided to replace his father’s house, the house of Hossain Qoli Khan Bakhtiari, with a Persian palace inspired by the French architecture at the same time. The historical value of this structure is more related to the organization of Bakhtiari forces for attacking Isfahan and Tehran. This political refuge of the constitutionalists in Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari has been recently turned into the Museum of Constitution.
The house of Sardar Asa’d Bakhtiari was the first place where the modernity reached Iran through the electricity. The fortress of Sardar Asa’d included various buildings in the past, from which only the alcove has been left today. The castle used to have two stories made of the stone, brick, plaster and soil. In addition, it had several gardens, pools, entrances towards the ancient pavement as well as the library. Also, the brickwork, mirror work and miniature wall paintings are among the main decorations of the building.
The upper floor, where there is the alcove, includes porches from the east, south and north. The porches have been decorated with some stone columns and brick works. There are six twin columns in the northern porch, six twin columns in the southern porch and six twin columns in the eastern porch which are decorated with the stone carved multi-petaled flowers. They depicted some flowers on the walls of the external façade, windows, triangles, facades and the edges of the porches. The wall of the western facade is even and there is no column here. However, the monotone and simple brickwork has been done in the form of a square and doornail. The ceiling of rooms in this floor which have been placed under the attic roof of the whole structure, has been covered by studding and installing eaves boards. The doors of the entrance and hall have been decorated in wood and metal in the form of flowers.
The lower floor, which is placed one meter above the ground, leads to the upper one through a staircase. The roof of rooms and halls of this floor have been built in arched form. Each room has a wall fireplace decorated in stucco. The external façade of this part has the stone, long squares and dado decorations.
In order to visit this place, which is located southwest of Shahr-e Kord, you should follow the route of Jounqan road. The castle is visible in the city, in the southern part of the road.