Being also known as Mirror Palace (Qasr-e Ayneh), the Mirror and Lighting Museum of Yazd is one of the most attractive museums in Yazd city. It is located in a garden with 8174m2 area in Kashani Yazdi street, and occupied a built-up area of 837m2. The building of museum is a belvedere in the center of a garden. In a vast garden with a pool in center, several rooms decorated in stucco and mirror works in front of the pool have embraced the nested corridors and spring house which are totally constructed at the time of Pahlavi I. Mirror Palace was built in 1320 S.H. by a person named Sarraf Zadeh and it was used in that time as a small private guesthouse.
He was Haj Ali Sarraf Yazdi’s son, a great merchant and a lawyer, who was born in Yazd in 1278 S.H. however, this mansion which was escheated to Poor Institution, was transferred into a museum in 1377 S.H. It should be said about the architecture and façade of the building that its décor is a combination of traditional and European architecture which have been mixed artistically by Iranian architects. The rooms in front of the pool have a spring sitting room, bedroom and alcove which have been decorated in stucco, wall painting and mirror work. Doors and windows are made of lattice wood with removable hinge in a simple and colorful manner. The museum presents different kinds of Pih Soozes(a small lamp made frequently of ceramic consisted of a fat reservoir and usually a handle at the back, which lights the room through burning the fat), matches and the ancient lighting objects. The museum includes 124 objects which can be divided into six groups: 1) mounting, pendant, standing and hand Pih Soozes; 2) different mounting, pendant, standing and hand candlesticks; 3) oil burner lighting objects; 4) gas burner lighting objects; 5) electric lighting objects; 6) mirror collection. The oldest objects in the museum are Pih Soozes belonging to Sassanid period. In addition, the endowment objects by Seyed Hossain Heydari (a Yazdi Collector) are on display in this museum. The Museum of Mirror and Lighting in Yazd also includes collections of manuscripts, weapons, coins, books, stamp, lock, horse muzzle (related to the 2nd Millennium BC) and examples of Luristan bronze objects which are being displayed to the public in this museum.
