Palace of "Prince Romanov" (1891)

The palace stands in the very centre, near the Amir Timur square and Independence Square, and stands out sharply from Uzbekistan's traditional architecture while still sitting well in the city.

It was built in 1891 to designs by the architects A. L. Benois and V. S. Heinzelmann in the art nouveau then in fashion: sweeping curves instead of right angles, beauty joined to function, and carefully worked interior detail. The single-storey house is of fired grey-yellow brick, with carved screens, windows of unusual shape and decorative turrets. Bronze deer with branching antlers lie on either side of the entrance, and a fountain in the same manner stands by the steps. The garden around it was laid out by the well-known Tashkent botanist and pharmacist I. I. Krause.

The house was built for Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich Romanov, nephew of Alexander II and grandson of Nicholas I. He came to Turkestan in exile, accused of stealing diamonds from the frame of an icon belonging to his mother. The missing stones later turned up in a St Petersburg pawnshop, but nobody believed him innocent; a family council declared him of unsound mind and sent him to the empire's edge.

The duke turned out to be a capable organiser. He cut irrigation canals in the Hungry Steppe, owned a soap works, photographic studios, a rice mill and cotton manufactories in Tashkent, and built the city's first cinema, the Khiva.

After his death the house changed hands several times: for a long stretch it was the Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan — the duke's collection of European and Russian painting warranted it — and later a museum of antiques and jewellery. After independence the building was restored and now serves as the Foreign Ministry's reception house. The interior is closed, so the palace is admired from outside.