Armenian vandalism in Shusha

Museum Mausoleum Complex of Molla Panah Vagif

Museum Mausoleum Complex of Molla Panah Vagif is located in Shusha, Azerbaijan. It was built in honor of Molla Panah Vagif, a poet, prominent statesman and diplomat and vizier-the foreign minister of the Karabakh Khanate.

The construction of the Museum Mausoleum Complex of outstanding Azerbaijani poet Molla Panah Vagif was launched in 1977. It was built by sculptor A. Mustafayev based on the design by a member of the National Academy of Sciences Abdul Vakhav Salamzade and well-known architect E.I. Kanukov.

Museum Mausoleum Complex of Molla Panah Vagif was inaugurated in January, 1982. The first secretary of the Central Committee of Azerbaijan Communist Party Haydar Aliyev, as well as, well-known literary and cultural figures took part in the opening of the complex. 

The design of the Museum Mausoleum Complex follows the pattern of Azerbaijani mausoleums architectural compositions such as Nizami Mausoleum in Ganja city. It rises to 18 meters in height. The bottom part of the monument is built with reddish Karabakh marble plates, white and grey marble. Aluminum is used for the decoration pattern in the entire length of the mausoleum. The poet’s name was engraved above the entrance door.

The complex was built on the tomb of the great poet located in the area close to the famous Jidir Duzu (horse race field) – the prominent place of Shusha, where the poet was killed. About eighty museum pieces reflecting the period of M. P. Vagif’s life in Shusha were exhibited there.

As a result of the occupation of Shusha by the Armenian Armed Forces in May, 1992, the building of the Museum Mausoleum Complex of Molla Panah Vagif and dozens of exhibits contained there were destroyed, and transportable exhibits were carried to Armenia.