Up until a hundred years ago, Isfahan’s rose was world famous, so much so that a world traveler such as Pierre Loti would take the trouble of going all the way from Champs-Élysées to Chaharbagh.
Even more interesting is the fact that in those days, rose-water industry was not limited to Kashan and its surrounding areas, but it was prevalent in Isfahan as well.
Pierre Loti wrote in his book “Vers Ispahan:”
In this short season, which soon leads to a dry and scorching summer, the abundance of roses in Isfahan is breathtaking. In the morning, as soon as I open my door, the gardener brings me a bouquet of roses still wet with the dew of May nights. In coffee houses, they put these roses beside the usual tea they serve in small cups. In the alleys, even the beggars offer flowers to the passersby.
He also talks of the rose bushes in the middle of Chaharbagh. The same bushes that, according to master Homaei, were located in front of the Bagh Takht (Sheikh Bahaei Street) and Bagh Bolbol (Shahid Rajaei Park). He writes:
There is an abundance of roses on the bushes planted in the middle of the way and people can freely pick from. When the time for making rose water comes, covered women go among the bushes and pick the roses with scissors, dropping many on the ground. Everywhere baskets full of roses and piles of roses are seen on the grounds.
At the beginning of spring, a festival of roses was held, which was full of recreation and entertainment for the people of Isfahan.
In that festival, the old and the young danced and prayed and made merry, and some entertained the people in coffee houses by jesting and joking.
Some others also accompanied them with trays full of roses on their heads and candles and lamps in their hands and threw roses all over and around people’s heads and received some money.
Name Bolbol Gaden
Current Name Shahid Rajaei Park
Era Safavid
Location Eastern side of the Chaharbagh
Only remaining effect Hasht Behesht Mansion
Name Pierre Loti
Actual Name Louis Marie-Julien Viaud
Profession Writer and Traveler
Date of travel to Isfahan 1905
Name of Book Towards Isfahan
