Scholars Pavilion

(Chartaghi)

The Chartaghi is the most famous element of Iranian architecture, which because of its spiritual position in Iranian temples has kept its prominent architectural role up to the present time. A Chartaghi consists of a shelter made of four vaults that stand on four pillars. A water basin is installed right below in the center. Sunrise, in the east, sunset in the west and the holy moment when the sun stands in its highest position at noon in the south, inspired Iranians to design the Chartaghi as a cross (the most famous Iranian symbol for the four holy geographical directions), and to install a small opening in its ceiling to allow the sunlight to light up the Chartaghi. A thrilling moment that every body wished to watch was the reflection of sunlight in the water basin located in its center: it resembled the struggle of Light and Darkness that finally ended in the triumph of Light. These ancient Iranian ritualistic concepts maintained their importance in the Islamic period as well.

Given the above cultural background, the Scholars Pavilion is constructed in the central Memorial Plaza of the Vienna International Centre. Its dimensions are 2.2m x 2.2m x 3m, and it is made of stones and fiber stones and represents an Iranian national and ritualistic symbol. Each pillar, which has been built in the Persian sub-style, comprises a pedestal, pillar and a bull-guard capital which supports the ziggurat ceiling with fourteen battlements decorated it in each direction. The ceiling façade is ornamented with sun icon decorations (a sun with 12 sun rays). In each arch one of the glories of the Iranian scientific figures is presented: Avicenna Ibn Sina, (980 - 1037, A.D.), philosopher and physician; Rāzī, (865 - 925, A.D.) Physician, Chemist, discoverer of alcohol and sulfuric acid; Bīrūnī, (973 - 1048, A.D.) mathematician, astrologer, discoverer of the rotation of the earth; and finally Omar Khayyam, (1048 -1123, A. D.), poet, mathematician, formulator of the famous formula of Pascal’s Triangle.  Indeed, these four Iranian scientists were brought up under the Greater Chartaghi of Iran and dispersed their knowledge through all four directions to the entire world.

The Scholars Pavilion was donated by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the International Organizations based in Vienna International Center, to reminiscent the contribution of the Iranian people to knowledge and science of humankind.