Gamal Nkrumah hearkens to Heba Barakat who takes him through the halls of Abdeen Palace and hears echoes from a century ago Time past can never be regained, mused Proust. Indeed, it may be impossible to recapture times past in every detail but the spirit of those times can be encapsulated in a museum, particularly if it is housed in a historic building. And this is what is aimed for in one of Cairo's most ostentatious public buildings, the Abdeen Palace. The curators, convinced that the conservation and restoration of Egypt's royal palaces are long overdue, have worked diligently to ensure that Abdeen Palace is a place where visitors can cherish every moment of their sojourn, no matter how long or brief. The old Palace still holds many Egyptians enthralled. It evokes memories of an age long gone, a carousal of extravagant soirees and balls. It also awakens recollections of revolutions and groundbreaking social upheavals. Poignant landmarks in Egypt's history were played out in the grounds of palatial Abdeen. The Egyptian authorities have been especially supportive of the effort to open a museum within the palace complex, says Heba Nayel Barakat, a project manager with The Centre for Documentation of Culture and Natural Heritage (CULNAT), an organisation affiliated with the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and supported by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology which is currently documenting Egypt's cultural and natural heritage. "There are six palaces in Egypt that we are particularly interested in and we thought it fitting to begin with Abdeen Palace," Barakat told Al-Ahram Weekly. She was eager to show the splendid publication that documents their work at the palace and the treasures that are crammed within its walls. The palace itself was the creation of one of Egypt's most remarkable modern rulers, Khedive Ismail, who selected one of the country's most distinguished public servants, Ali Pasha Mubarak, appointed minister of public works, to head the project, in the hope -- which eventually proved misplaced -- it would be ready in time for the celebrations planned to mark the opening of the Suez Canal. "Abdeen has made an immense contribution to the history of the country," explains Barakat. Construction began at a time when Egypt was a feudal, mainly agricultural, society, and spanned the period in which the khedive was determined to turn his country into a modern, industrial state. The palace reflects both the ambition and its inherent contradictions. Khedive Ismail initiated the construction of Abdeen Palace in 1863 and it was officially inaugurated in 1874 amid much pomp and ceremony. However, it was in the years from 1922 to 1952 that the palace acquired what are now its most characteristic contents. This was Abdeen's belle epoch, a period that witnessed highlights such as the wedding of the Shah of Iran Mohamed Reza Pahlavi and his beautiful bride Princess Fawzeya in 1939. "There are two things about a building: its use and its beauty," wrote Victor Hugo. "Its use belongs to its owner; its beauty belongs to everyone." Since the July 1952 Revolution Abdeen Palace has belonged to the Egyptian state. The fortunes of the palace, however, rose and waned. Like many of the other royal palaces there were rumours that it was looted in the aftermath of the Revolution. Today, foreign dignitaries are very occasionally housed there during their visits to Egypt, the last such being former Russian president Vladimir Putin. In its final days as a royal residence the official dining hall was favoured by the Queen Mother, Nazli, and the Royal Banquet Hall by her daughter-in-law Queen Farida, King Farouk's first wife. The royals, generally, preferred to live in some of their other palaces. King Farouk had a penchant for Qasr Al-Kubba. Receptions at Abdeen were extremely well thought out, even down to the smallest details of the cuisine. This was because the King [Farouk] often supervised everything himself. If there was an especially delicate or tricky ceremony ahead, he would have the whole thing run through the previous day," mused Prince Hassan Hassan in his classic autobiography In the House of Mohamed Ali. The Abdeen Palace is unique in that the Salamlek (halls for receiving guests) and the Haramlek (royal women apartments) are joined, a major departure from the strict Ottoman custom that they be separated. This break with tradition reflected the spirit of the time. Egypt was modernising fast and old ways were giving way to the new. Certain sections of the palace became associated with particular members of the royal family over the years though it seems that the Winter Garden was a favourite of nearly everyone. The Suez Canal Room was favoured by Khedive Abbas Helmi who used it as his throne room, attracted, perhaps, by its neo-baroque opulence. The palace has survived the tremendous political upheavals of a century and a half, as well as manmade and natural disasters, including the January 1952 Cairo Fire and the earthquake that shook Cairo in October 1992. In July 1891 a fire devastated the Haramlek and Royal Guards quarters of the palace. Subsequently razed, they were rebuilt at the then cost of LE172,000. There is no particular colour scheme to Abdeen. The décor is varied, the palace replete with small wonders, treasures that combine to make the entire complex a feast for the eyes. Intended as a showcase of Ismail's predilection for 19th century architecture and design -- visiting Paris in 1867 he had been given a tour by no less a personage than Baron Haussmann, creator of the modern French capital -- Egypt's rulers marshaled vast sums to finance the European-inspired palace. Ismail was no guardian of the past. The practical flourishes at Abdeen were clearly inspired by French styles, as are the furniture, paintings, tapestries and decorative objects. Porcelain-enameled lanterns, Sévres candelabras, bronze and crystal chandeliers, glass by Emile Gallé, priceless Hajj Jalili Tabriz carpets -- the list goes on and on. Khedive Ismail's French pistachio porcelain Pillivuyt set, King Fouad's gilded porcelain and King Farouk's cobalt blue tea and coffee services, all bearing the royal emblems of their owners, can be seen alongside German ormolu breakfast tables, Italian gilt-bronze mounted caskets, Aubusson sofas and mantle clocks galore. Indeed, the clocks are among the most striking contents of the palace, much of which was conceived to impress the Empress Eugenie. In Egypt for the opening of the Suez Canal, the palace, alas, was not yet finished for her visit. Certain aspects of Abdeen Palace were barely legible to Westerners. It is a weird and wonderful world. There are parlours and wings where princes and princesses, beys and pashas roamed freely. And then there are the corridors of power, miles of them. In the main hall a life-size portrait of President Hosni Mubarak takes pride of place, a tacit reminder that this building was for decades a centre of political authority, while the walls are decorated with antique weapons, for soldiers, as well as courtiers, played a role in the palace's design and subsequent embellishment. The monarchs' retainers, their harems and hangers-on all had to be catered to and accommodated. Abdeen manages to represent both the swan-song of Egypt's monarchy and its zenith. If Abdeen started out as a Westernised royal residence it was to develop in a very different way and can, in some ways, be viewed as the cardboard showpiece of an unreal empire. The main body of the building consists of a two-storey façade behind which are spacious halls embellished with paintings, sculptures and other treasures. Like many buildings of this sort it underwent constant renewal as new elements were added throughout the last decades of the 19th century. Abdeen set an architectural trend, importing European styles into the heart of an oriental city. As such it can be seen as a trail blazing building and the new idioms it announced were quickly taken up in less grand domestic and public buildings. Abdeen was never the favourite retreat of Egypt's rulers -- indeed no one actually took up permanent residence in the building -- but it remained their ceremonial base. Abdeen embodied the change of direction of Egypt. The rulers of Egypt lived within European-inspired grandeur, huge, high ceiling, richly decorated halls. It was conceived as a royal dwelling befitting a Western monarch, and in the 19th century, Europe's most triumphalist epoch. But, there is always plenty of catch-up time. Palaces can be read as an expression of the dreams and desires of a particular moment, and Abdeen, the most eminent of Cairo's extant palaces, is no exception. As time went on it grew larger, grander, filled to the rafters with objects that run from miniature curiosities to full blown ceremonial ostentation. The banqueting and audience halls were made to measure, perfectly fitting the inclinations of the age. These huge halls for feasting were new features in Egypt, in stark contrast with the architectural traditions of the Ottoman and Mameluke periods. The use of different structures also changed over the years. Traditionally, dignitaries had not been welcome in the Haramlek, an aspect of protocol that Abdeen changed forever since, as Barakat points out. Abdeen was the first royal palace to combine both the Salamlek and Haramlek, permitting women into the Salamlek, which until then was the exclusive domain of male reception halls. Royal compounds have always been complex organisms, constantly mutating according to the demands of the time. Certainly some of the structures incorporated into the overall palace scheme appear designed to buttress the dignity of the newly acquired title assumed by the pro-Western Khedive Ismail. Since its inception successive rulers have altered the original structure, building apartments by the side of the original palace, barracks for the royal guards, stables, kitchens and bakehouses. Abdeen was part of the warp and weft of Cairo's belle epoch and whatever its architectural failings it remains an evocative monument to that age. Its ornate interior marks it apart from other palaces in the country. Ironically, this brainchild of the Khedive Ismail, planned so that Egypt's new royal residence would match any in Europe and designed from the start to double as his working headquarters, occupies an ambiguous place in the iconography of contemporary Egypt. Abdeen's hold on the Egyptian imagination remains strong, and wandering through the galleried rooms it is possible, in those vast silent spaces, to hear echoes of the tumultuous lives that once filled the palace. The building, of course, contains many signposts indicating how Egypt would develop though reading them is a subtle, nuanced task. In summer 1882, and while the British troops were landing in Alexandria, Khedive Tawfik fled to Ras Al-Teen Palace in Alexandria to be under the protection of the British. Earlier, Ahmed Orabi, leader of the 1881-82 Revolution, had challenged the Khedive and marched to Abdeen Square with 3000 Egyptian soldiers to demand reform. After the nationalist Revolution was crushed at the hands of the British, the Khedive returned back to Abdeen. "On 30 October 1882 in Abdeen Square," notes Jacques Berque in his seminal work Egypt: Imperialism and Revolution "the British troops filed past, almost in their entirety -- some 12,000 men. The Khedive watched the scene from a rostrum, with his new cabinet gathered around him. All saluted the flags as they passed. This went on until sunset." Orabi was arrested and incarcerated in the vicinity of the building before being exiled to Ceylon. The palace is a symbol, irreducibly so, sufficiently important to the aura surrounding Egypt's ruling house that Khedive Abbas Helmi II, who reigned from 1892-1914, set up a committee to manage its affairs, comprising, among others, Tigrane Pasha, then minister of finance, and Shawki Pasha, the Khedive's chamberlain. The committee appointed Ambrose Baudry (1838-1900) as royal architect in 1895. Abdeen was enlarged, beautified and spruced up. At its apogee, it encapsulated the royal splendour that was about to crumble. In the meantime, however, and especially after Egypt became a monarchy following World War I, Abdeen Palace became the main seat of power from where King Fouad and his son Farouk ruled the country. However, the "King Fouad, it must be admitted, was inadvertently the cause of the mishandling of the interior decoration at Abdeen. He was informed that the Palace needed renovating, and a budget of two million pounds was set aside for the purpose. As the King had neither the time nor any interest in these matters, he was advised to give the work to what he was told was a competent European decorator, who proceeded to push into distant corridors very nice pieces of already existing furniture and replace them with contemporary replicas of period pieces. But the decorator's most ridiculous and offensive blunder is in the Byzantine Room, which he filled with art-deco reliefs," Prince Hassan Hassan noted. With the July 1952 Revolution, the new rulers were keen on disassociating themselves from monarchical extravagance. Abdeen fell into temporary disuse. During the presidency of Gamal Abdel-Nasser, Abdeen was deliberately left to decompose -- not quite so literally, but metaphorically. It was a diabolical symbol of the ancien regime. Under Anwar El-Sadat, its fortunes picked up albeit at a tortuously slow pace. The windowed fumoir that constituted the royal banquet hall came to life again when foreign dignitaries dropped by. And in the era of President Mubarak treasures were salvaged and CULTNAT picked up the pieces.
