Bakhchisaray fountain: a typical water supply or a symbol of romanticism?

The Bakhchsarai fountain, or, as it is also called,"Fountain of tears", was built in 1764 by the Persian architect Omer, who specializes in erecting luxurious buildings for the powerful of this world. It is difficult to say why a representative of Shiite Iran took up work for one of the Turkish satellites - the Crimean Khan. The fact is that the antagonism of Turkey and Iran (Persia) had not only political, but also ideological roots.

The ruling Shia branch of Islam in Iranhad some theological differences from Sunnism, adopted in the Ottoman Empire and its allies and subjects. Declaring each other as heretics, the two states waged endless wars from the beginning of the sixteenth century. However, since the forties of the eighteenth century, a seventy-five-year truce has come. Perhaps, using it, the famous Persian architect went to the Crimea and became a guest worker, creating a small miracle - the Bakhchsarai fountain.

Bakhchisaray, the current Crimean district center, in the pastwas the capital of the Crimean Khanate, which brought a lot of trouble to its northern neighbors - Russia, Ukraine and Rzeczpospolita. Krymchaks made raids and lands of the Caucasus.

In Bakhchisaray was the residence of the Crimean khan- a beautiful palace, already in our time listed in the list of cultural monuments of universal significance. In an effort to translate their ideas about the paradise on earth, Muslim architects created a "palace-garden" (as the name of the city of Bakhchisarai is translated from the Crimean Tatar language). And the city itself owes its appearance to the beginning of the construction of the palace. When at the beginning of the sixteenth century the Crimean Khan seemed close to his then rate, he decided to build a new one.

In the khan's palace there are two fountains. One of them is called "golden" because of the golden cover of the ornament, which symbolizes the Garden of Eden. The second was named "fountain of tears" because of the romantic legend that Pushkin heard during his Crimean trip. According to legend, one of the wives of the khan poisoned another, to which the ruler of the Crimea was more supportive. Grieving about the loss, the Khan ordered to build a "fountain of tears". Thanks to Pushkin's talent, this story was transformed into a well-known work describing the conflict between the Georgian Zarema and Lithuanian Lithuanians, which ended with the death of the latter.

"Fountain of Tears" received a literary name"Bakhchisarai Fountain" by the name of the poem. When Pushkin visited Bakhchisarai, he was a little over twenty, the most romantic age. Considering that Alexander Sergeevich was also a poet, that is, a romanticist doubly, the heard story could not but impress him, he could not help creating a poem about the Bakhchisarai fountain! Pushkin wrote this little work for two years. He graduated in 1823, and in 1824, it saw the light.

I must say that in terms of architecturethe Bakhchisarai fountain does not represent anything original, constructions of this type are widespread in the Muslim world. The famous painting by Karl Bryullov, written under the impression of Pushkin's poem, gives an absolutely wrong idea of ​​the appearance of the fountain, which in reality looks more like a typical water pipe structure.

But that's the power of the master! Not without reason the honorary title "the creator of the modern Russian literary language", according to the majority of literary critics, was just Pushkin! Bakhchisaray fountain, thanks to the genius of genius from the private element of park architecture, became a symbol of romanticism.