Any architecture starts with dwelling erecting and the Garabagh architecture is not exclusion. But only here the remains of first human-built dwellings had lasted until our days. Over 600 milleniums had passed since these dwellings had been constructed in the Azykh cave. Ancient inhabitants of Azykh were not satisfied with the cave's natural facilities for living, and tried to improve their living conditions inside it. For this purpose they had surrounded living space in the cave with stone walls. It took a long time before humans learned to erect more complicated buildings at an open air outside caves.

So-called "qaradam" was the basic dwelling type for the Garabagh population since ancient times up to the middle of XX century. Most often the name is translated as "a black (smoked) house". In the center of such dwelling there was a fireplace hollow with wooden steps. Right above the fireplace in the center of the room ceiling there was a hole for lightening and rid of smoke.

Fragment of the Shusha city fortress wall

Plenty of remarkable architectural monuments can be met in Garabagh. So, there are two constructions from the Medieval Barda: the mausoleum built in 1322, and the Imamzadeh Mosque. The mausoleum was built by an architect Ahmad ibn Ayyub Nakhchivani for some unknown person. It is a cylindrical tower of 14 meters height and 10 meters diameter, constructed from bricks and decorated with squared stone and glazed greenish-blue slabs. Its two portals are richly decorated.

The Imamzadeh Mosque is slightly younger than the described mausoleum. Initially it was a mausoleum-pir of somebody known as Imamzadeh Ibrahim. Only in 1868, it was re-constructed and turned to a mosque. They didn't change the main building, but had added several adjoining buildings including 4 high minarets. These minarets are decorated with contoured brickwork of the same style that was used by builders of the "Mausoleum 1322".

It is remarkable that in the Aghdam district (close to the Barda district), in the village of Khachin-Dorbatlyh, there is a mausoleum with size, shape and age similar to the "Mausoleum 1322" in Barda. But this one is build as a twelve-sided prism with a pyramid cupola and presents a lot of details typical for Albanian objects of highland Garabagh. Yet in Aghdam itself there are no constructions older than the Imarat (Palace) and the Mausoleum of Panah-khan (both erected in XVIII).

The Imarat initially consisted from one big room (with ceiling shaped as octahedron cupola with eight arcs in corners) and open gallery before it (at the room's south). Then rooms were added at the Imarat's east and west. The length of Imarat is 24 meters. The Mausoleum of Panah-khan is shaped as an octahedron prism with octahedron pyramid as its top.

The Askaran Fortress

Activities of Panah-khan and his sons are presented in architecture also with remains of fortresses, which they had erected in Garabagh. First of them is the Shakhbulagh Fortress. Its remains are located in 10 km from Aghdam. The second is the Askaran Fortress built by Mehrali-khan (the son of Panah-khan) in 1757-1760. That times the fortress was a biggest defensive construction of Azerbaijan. It was built between Khankandi and Aghdam for defending from lowland side. The fortress partitioned the valley of Qarachay River, i.e. the road towards the capital of Garabagh - Shusha - leaving only a narrow passage by the riverbank. This passage was dividing the fortress into two fortifications. At the river's right bank there was a long (250 m) doubled wall with two towers in the middle and rectangular bastions on the ends. At the river's left bank there was a group of forts joined into a fortification unit. Height of the walls reached 9 m while their thickness was 2m. They were built from the river pebble.

A lot of interesting architectural objects of the area are concentrated in the city of Shusha. Among them first can be mentioned impressive fortress walls surrounding old Shusha. Only few parts of these walls and their Ganja gate had lasted out. The gate was installed in a framed stone arc of interesting combination of stones of dark and light tones. In front of the gate there was an additional defendant wall, which didn't allow an enemy to enter the gate suddenly. From inside supportive rooms for guard joined the gate. The gate still has a two-level tower at its west.

Another two historical-architectural objects had lasted until our days in the southeast part of the town. They are known as castles of Ibrahim Khalil-khan and his daughter Qara Boyuk-khanum. These castles are "closed" into their fortress walls shaped as a square with towers in corners.

In the northeast part of Shusha there is a Palace of Garabagh Khans. This two-store construction consists of plenty of rooms including the big official hall shaped as a letter "T". This hall is a center of whole Palace's composition and is separated from the outer space by means of big, lifting windows "shabaka" (complicated cut-out patterns designed without any nail connection).

Besides, Shusha has a lot of dwellings built long ago. There is a house of Khurshud Banu Natavan among them. The central place in this house is a spacey hall of 5 m height (on the first floor). Walls of this hall were covered with ornamental paintings and alabaster carvings, while lightening was coming inside from two opposite each other sides through large "shabaka"-windows with installed numerous pieces of glass of various colors. Wonderful wall paintings can be seen in the house of general Samad-agha Mehmandarov, who was a hero of the legendary defense of Port Arthur in 1904.

Shusha had also many mosques, including the mosque of Govhar-agha - one of the daughters of the khan. It had been erected in 1760-1768, in the center of the town and now is a symbol of Shusha. It is a very beautiful architectural construction with two well-proportioned minarets, covered with patterns of colored tiled bricks.

Several Albanian chapels of V-XIII centuries had lasted until our days in mountains of Garabagh. The most impressive among them are monastery complexes of Cicernavak (in Lachin district), Khotavank and Qandzasar (Kalbajar district). The basic building of each of these monasteries is a rectangular house of over 25-m height, consisting from 2-3 parts, with a specifically outstanding semi-cupola on the top.

Ganja Gates

It must be mentioned that in highland Garabagh there are many remains of medieval fortresses, while in lowland Garabagh - not big in height memorial constructions (mausoleums, burial vaults). Rather many of them had lasted until our days in south of Garabagh - in the Zangilan district (at the River of Araz, Mammadbayli and Sharifan villages), in the Fizuli district (Babyh and Ahmadallar villages) and other places. Remains of two remarkable historical bridges - one of 15, another of 11 spans - can be observed here in Jabrayil district (Khudafarin village).