Gallery
Description
Property Name: Red Fort Complex
Inventory No: 91-11-2
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2007-09-26
Country (State party): India
Province: Delhi
Town: Shahjahanabad
Geographic coordinates: 28°39’21.96″N
77°14’27.67″E
Historic Period: Mughal
Year of Construction: 17th century
Style: Mughal
Original Use: Palace
Current Use: Palace
Architect: Unknown
Significance
The planning of the palace is based on Islamic prototypes, but each pavilion reveals architectural elements typical of Mughal building, reflecting a fusion of Persian, Timurid and Hindu traditions. The monument’s significance is further enhanced by the importance of events that happened. Through its fabric, the complex reflects all phases of Indian history from the Mughal period to independence.
Selection Criteria
ii. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design
iii. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared
vi. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
State of Preservation
Red Fort Complex carries the marks of invasions and the destruction they brought. During the occupation ın 1857, almost 80% of the buıld was destroyed. The latest preservation project by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of In India) restores much of the Red fort complex to how it was in the bygone Mughal era. The state of the complex has improved during the last ten years, but still lacks many more restorations.
References
Ed. Zeenut Ziad Foreword by Milo Cleveland Beach, The Magnificient Mughals, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002
Hattstein, Markus. Islam: art and architecture. Cambridge: Könemann, 2000.
Henri Stierlin, Architektur des Islam, Atlantis, Zürich 1979
Website of Archnet: http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=3232
http://archnet.org/library/sites/one-site.jsp?site_id=3719
Website of Unesco: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/231
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/231/documents/