One of the legendary royal ceremonies once held in the Mohamed Ali Pasha Palace overlooking the Nile at Shubra was replayed two weeks ago with a thoroughly modern twist, writes Nevine El-Aref Two hundred years after Mohamed Ali Pasha built his great palace at Shubra, only its Saraya Al-Fasqiya (Fountain Palace) and its charming pond have survived. After many years of neglect, these have now been restored to their original splendour. The palace is situated in a splendid garden planted with rare trees and shrubs which since 1956 has housed Ain Sham University's Faculty of Agriculture and, as such, was no more than a playground for rabbits and chickens. The Shubra Palace was built in 1808, near the beginning of Mohamed Ali's reign. Egypt's new ruler needed to escape from the Citadel, his official residence and seat of government. He chose Shubra as a retreat in which to erect his haramlik (private quarters) because of its incomparable beauty, lush greenery and uniquely secluded position on the banks of the Nile. Turkish and Armenian architects were employed to build the original palace in a similar style to others in the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles and the Marmora Sea. A team of gardeners was employed to create a garden of exotic trees and shrubbery. Once the palace was completed Mohamed Ali was clearly not entirely satisfied with the results, and in 1820 he hired French architect Pascal Coste to enlarge his residence in Shubra. He wanted a "small Versailles," complete with groves, a labyrinth, a hippodrome, and a great expanse of water surrounded by galleries flanked by four pavilions; also a mosque and large alleys delineated with rows of trees. The Saraya Al-Fasqiya, one of the small parts that still survive, features a vast square pool with a marble island at its centre. Surrounding the pool is a cloistered colonnade broken by four advancing terraces, all in white marble, exquisitely sculptured in a neo-classical style. Four marble lions spouting water are set alongside statues of other creatures. The cloister ceilings are painted with decorative motifs, among which is a portrait of Mohamed Ali set in a medallion, and, in the opposite ceiling across the water, a corresponding portrait of his son Ibrahim. The rooms of the building are grouped in its four corners. On the right, when entering the colonnade, is a drawing room with an exceptionally beautiful parquet floor inlaid with intricate designs in rosewood. This is surmounted by a heavily sculptured ceiling painted dark blue and gold, with a handsome chandelier hanging from its centre. The room is furnished with 19th-century armchairs and chairs in the style of Louis XV lined against the wall. Two other suites in the corners of the building were used as bedrooms, and all the walls and ceilings are gaily painted with oriental arabesques. In the fourth corner is the billiard room in which the first part of the opening ceremony was held. The wall on the right is decorated in the Italian manner of the period, depicting a romantic landscape with classical ruins, almost a trompe-l'oeil, although the flowing architectural lines that frame it are very Turkish. On the day of the opening two weeks ago, onlookers were transported back in time to one of Mohamed Ali Pasha's royal events. At the request of Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, President and Mrs Hosni Mubarak inaugurated the exquisite palace after five years of restoration. The special ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif along with scores of Egyptian ministers and government officials. Guided by Hosni they were given a tour around the palace halls, and in the billiard hall they watched a 20-minute documentary film narrating in depth the various restoration stages. Mr and Mrs Mubarak, along with the dignitaries, were invited by Hosni to the colonnaded terrace where the Cairo Opera Orchestra -- which stood on a marble island at the centre of a vast square pool in the carefully tended gardens laid out with exotic trees -- played Carl Orff's Carmina Burana and pieces from Sayed Darwish, Mohamed Abdel-Wahab and Umm Kulthoum. "Restoring the palace was a real challenge," Hosni told Al-Ahram Weekly, adding that it would have been a great pity if this magnificent palace had fallen total victim to negligence. He said the palace, once the stage of great royal festivals, would be used as the venue for official and governmental events. Over the last five years and with a budget of LE50 million, the palace, once known as the Egyptian Versailles, has been comprehensively restored to save the exquisite early 19th-century buildings which feature a blend of rococo and baroque styles. Through the ages this magnificent palace, which was built over 13 years from 1808 to 1821 on an area of 11,000 feddans, has lost many of its features. It originally consisted of 13 buildings used by Mohamed Ali Pasha as a guest house for foreign ambassadors and members of his family. During World War I, the haramlik (main building) was demolished by Aziza, a member of the royal family, when it was rumoured that the British were thinking of using it for military purposes. In 1935 King Fouad offered 25 feddans of the garden to the government to be the starting point for the King Fouad University. In the reign of King Farouk the residential house which overlooked the Nile along with its marital dock was demolished during the construction of the Cairo-Alexandria agricultural road. A few years after the 1952 Revolution the palace garden became the premises of Ain Shams University's Faculty of Agriculture, and the site was turned into a farm complete with chicken coops, rabbit hutches, a barn, research laboratories and cultivated areas used by students for experiments. Today three sections of the original palace complex are still in place: the gabalaya, used as a women's residence; the fasqiya, a nymphaeum complex used for receptions and festivals. and the saqiya (well), which once supplied the palace with Nile water. In 1984 a presidential decree listed the palace and its garden on Egypt's antiquities list and handed it over to the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), which will now transform it into a museum. Although the decree was designed to put an end to misuse of the palace, it triggered a conflict with Ain Shams University. The Faculty of Agriculture refused to evacuate the buildings and the SCA did not want to start restoration work as long as the faculty was still occupying the premises. However, in 2000 the culture minister embarked on an inspection tour of the Shubra palace and called for an immediate restoration project to save it from further deterioration. The palace was in dire need of repair. The ceilings painted with decorative foliage motifs and portraits of Mohamed Ali and his sons, set in medallions, had lost some of their elements, the walls were traced with cracks, and the marble bestiary -- frogs, lions, serpents, fish and crocodiles -- on the water fountain basin was damaged. The only obstacle standing in the way of restoration was the Faculty of Agriculture, which occupied most of the palace garden. After several meetings at which both sides tried to reach a compromise solution, it was agreed to build a wall separating the palace from the faculty, while the chicken coops and rabbit hutches which encroached on the saqiya, as well as the student hostel, were moved out of the palace site. A separate entrance has been created for the palace. Ayman Abdel-Moneim, director of the restoration project, said that the restoration was carried out in three phases. The first aimed at reinforcing the foundations of the three buildings (the gabalaya, which was in especially bad condition, the fasqiya and the saqiya ) and protecting them from water leakage. The second phase focused on the ceilings, walls, floors and marble columns and the decorative items of the fasqiya, while the third phase was devoted to the garden which included several exotic plant species. Abdel-Moneim told the Weekly that the fasqiya had now regained its original splendour as a stage for official ceremonials. He said the water basin was now filled and was floodlit at night, and its central marble island, which was used as an opera stage, was now ready to host orchestral, operatic and dance performances. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said the restoration had been carried out according to the latest and most scientific methods. "Every effort was made to ensure that all original architectural features were retained," he said. Hawass added that the restoration of Mohamed Ali Pasha's palace had two important advantages: individual monuments were being preserved for future generations, and the entire neighbourhood was being revived and upgraded. Mokhtar El-Kassabani, professor of Islamic archaeology at Cairo University, told the Weekly that the palace had a distinctive architectural design known as the "garden palace" style, which was introduced by Mohamed Ali during the first half of the 19th century when modern urbanisation changed Shubra from a vast, empty area of agricultural land. The palace was embellished with Italian, French and Arabic decorative elements. Its main building was built in white marble in the early 19th- century Orientalist style, with loggias and balconies adorned with metalwork and stucco arabesques. As the palace was reputed to have been splendid in decoration and furnishings, fortunes were said to have been made from the materials salvaged when it was demolished in World War I, which included paintings that were set into the walls. El-Kassabani continued that the only part that survived the destruction was the kiosk, which featured the pool.
