A SUN-LIKE SQUARE

It was the first square in Baku, and nearly all of the most interesting events that were happening in the city, happened there. In the course of its almost two-hundred-year history, it was a popular place for making transactions, having dates, holding parades and brass band concerts, and even performing weddings. It changed its appearance and names, but originally it was called Sunny Square.

Names and monuments

Old people remember the square as the Parapet and still call it so because it was built as a place for staging parades, which were held here starting from the 1860s. During the holidays or imperial visits, officers and soldiers would march to bravura music along the fortress wall (as the territory of today's Nizami Museum, Azerbaijan cinema and other buildings was a wasteland back then) and stop at the residential quarters of the governor general (Old Town).

The idea of land improvement outside the city (i.e. beyond the fortress wall) has existed since the 1830s; there were even several projects, layouts and drawings but it was all about funding. In 1859, Baku was granted status as a province centre and received appropriate allocations, following which the wasteland immediately started to be improved. The project was initiated by Kolyubakin, the first governor of Baku, and for some time, the square was called "Kolyubakinskaya". But due to the cacophonic sounding of this name the place soon became popularly known as Sunny Square, based on the principle of its layout.

This principle has been preserved until now and, in fact, it has made an impact on the entire central part of today's Baku. It was all the "fault" of young, talented architect Qasim bay Hacibababayev. It is thanks to him that what we call today Fountain Square has some rounded features in its planning, with the streets radiating from it in all directions like rays of sunlight. Hacibababayev also built two beautiful caravanserais (now the Araz cinema and the Nizami Museum), several residential buildings and two magnificent hotels (Grand Hotel and Metropol) on the square.

When the square had acquired its final form thanks to the new elegant buildings, it turned out that it lacked a central element. The governor and the city council were for many years at odds over what should be built in the centre of the square. And only in 1894, it was decided to erect a monument to Emperor Alexander II, known as a reformer and the liberator of serfs. Work on landscape gardening was started, to which end trees were brought from Borjomi and Tbilisi. But it turned out that they could not easily take root in the dry and salty Abseron land, and the landscaping process suddenly proved to be laborious. As a result, when it came to the monument, there were no resources left in the treasury. The 1905 revolution, the economic crisis and the First World War that followed, as well as subsequent events, buried the idea of the monument at all.

However, since 1894 and until the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) in 1918, the square was called "Aleksandrov-skaya".

In 1920, the Communists apparently decided to continue the royal tradition - they renamed the square the Garden of Karl Marx and intended to build a monument in his name in the middle of the square. But the trees again failed to acclimatize: brought from cooler places, they could not withstand local sunlight and began to dry out, because of which this place came to be called by people the Barren Garden.

It was not until the early 1950s that the state was able to thoroughly - and more competently - plant this place with trees and build fountains there. Now the former Parapet is turned into a beautiful park with fountains, which led to its present name, Fountain Square.

Life of Fountain Square

Along with Qasim bay, a major role in shaping the appearance of the square was played by Masadi Mirza Qafar-Izmaylov. The unusual shape of the above Araz cinema was the work of his hands. That was one of his first designs implemented in 1868. In subsequent years, he built many beautiful buildings, including those surrounding the square. He lived close to this caravanserai and, like other wealthy Baku residents, spent a lot of time in expensive restaurants on the square.

Life on Fountain Square has not changed at all during the last hundred years except that, in the Soviet period, there were no decent restaurants (excluding Soviet-style beer halls and snack bars with notorious service), luxury shops and boutiques.

In the 19th century, this place was frequented not only by millionaires and Russian officers but also by relatively rich craftsmen who lived and worked nearby. They mostly settled in the residential quarters between the Parapet and the place know today as the Winter Garden. Up till now, this area, in front of the fortress wall, cannot boast an elegance of style like the territory that extends to the right from the wall, skirting the square and leading towards Torgovaya Street.

In his book "Urban Development of Baku", historian Samil Fatullayev wrote that the square was overlooked by banks, houses of millionaires (including that of Nagiyev), hotels and public places. In fact, in the 19th century and at the turn of the century, the Parapet was the centre of both the entertainment and business life of the city.

To the left (on a rising incline) and to the right (behind the contemporary Nizami Museum), less fashionable trading was carried out - there were rows of grocery and clothing stores, and books were sold right in the street, as in the recent 1990s.

At the end of the 19th century, there was only one fountain in this area, in the place of the present-day monument to Nizami. It was a habit among newlyweds to be photographed near this fountain. Photographers, whose studios were close by, were continuously "hunting" for customers around the fountain. The price of a picture ranged from one to five roubles, depending on its size and the client's solvency. By the way, it took only two hours to make a photo.

Car traffic is now prohibited on Fountain Square but in those days, the roads leading to the caravanserais were busy with horse-drawn trams and then first cars. In Soviet times, this place was reserved for promenades and a tram line was put into operation there, which ran past the Nizami Museum, the monument to [Azerbaijani poetess] Natavan, the Azerbaijan cinema, and on to the boulevard. Later, the tram was removed. Opposite the museum, there was a nameless but popular beer hall, known for the quality of service and beer and beer availability, which was rare for the Soviet era. Just as Trading Street, Fountain Square has always been and still is a place of physical exercise of urban beauties, dating and walks with children. This is one of the main symbols of the city and perhaps the most beloved one.