Prince Amr Ibrahim Palace

The Prince Amr Ibrahim Palace is a historical building in Cairo's Zamalek island, which is used as the Egypt's first ceramics museum and as an art center.

Prince Amr Ibrahim Palace
General information
Architectural style	Neo-Ottoman
Town or city	Zamalek
Country	Egypt
Completed	1921 (1921)
Cost	200 million Euros ($257m)
Client	Prince Amr Ibrahim
Technical details
Size	850 square meters
Design and construction
Architect	Garo Balyan

History and location

The palace is located in the Gezira area, an island in the Nile, of Zamalek in Cairo.[1] It was built on the orders of Prince Amr Ibrahim (1903–1977), member of the Muhammad Ali dynasty, in 1921.[2][3][4] The architecture of the building was Garo Balyan, the youngest member of the Balyan family.[5] The cost of the construction was about 200 million euros ($257 million).[3]

The palace was used by the Prince as a summer residence.[6][7]

Style and layout

The architectural style of the palace is of neo-Ottoman[8] and of the neo-Islam.[9] It also reflects dominant styles of the Muhammad Ali dynasty in terms of its architectural and decorative style.[10] There are also Moroccan and Andalusian influences in the architecture of the palace.[9]

Total area of the building is 850 square meters.[6][11] It is made of a basement and two floors.[6] In the entrance hall there is a marble fountain decorated with blue ceramics.[1] The palace is surrounded by a 2,800 square metre garden.[12]

Current usage

The palace became a state property on 9 November 1953 following the coup in Egypt.[8][13][14] It was first employed as a club by the Arab Socialist Union until 1971.[15] From 1971 the building was employed by the Ministry of Culture as an exhibition gallery for the paintings endowed by Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil.[12] In 1998 it was renovated by the Egyptian architect Aly Raafat[6] and began to be used a ceramics museum in February 1999.[15] Then it became an art center, called El Gezira art center, also in 1999.[1][16]

References

1. El Aref, Nevine (4–10 March 1999). "Take some steps back in time". Al Ahram (419). Archived from the original on 21 May 2008. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
2. "Famille Souveraine". Egypt e dantan. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
3. "Egypt: The return of the King?". Al Jazeera. 8 July 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
4. "Museum of Islamic Ceramics: Beautiful Browsing for the History-phobes". Cairo 360. 17 March 2010. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
5. Raafat, Samir. "Cairo's belle époque architects 1900 - 1950". EGY. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
6. "Museum of Islamic Ceramics". Egypt Holidays Diractory. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
7. Jonathan M. Bloom; Sheila Blair (2009). The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture. Oxford University Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-19-530991-1. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
8. Samir Raafat (4 February 1999). "The Palace of Prince Amr Ibrahim". Cairo Times. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
9. Mohamed Ahmed Abdelrahman Ibrahim Enab (Winter 2019). "Saray of Prince Amr Ibrahim in Zamalek Archaeological and documental study in the light of a new document published for the first time". Journal of General Union of Arab Archaeologists. 20 (1). Retrieved 28 July 2020.
10. "Gezira Art Center". DI-EGY Festival. 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
11. "Architecture in Egypt". MIT. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
12. Yasser Talaat (23 February 1999). "Middle East's First Museum of Islamic Ceramics". Inter Press Service. Cairo. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
13. "History of Zamalek". Zamalek 101. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
14. Matthew Carrington (10 November 2008). Frommer's Egypt. John Wiley & Sons. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-470-40343-3.
15. "The China syndrome". Al Ahram Weekly (557). 25–31 October 2001. Archived from the original on 13 September 2009. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
16. Tomoe Murakami (October 2014). "Cosplay Report from Egypt". Wochi Kochi Magazine. Retrieved 28 July 2020.

External links

• Art Center