National Museum of History of Azerbaijan
museum in Baku, Azerbaijan
The National Museum of History of Azerbaijan (Azerbaijani: Milli Azərbaycan Tarixi Muzeyi) is the largest museum in Azerbaijan. It is located in Baku, in the former residential house of Azerbaijani oil magnate and philanthropist Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev. The museum was founded in 1920, following the Russian takeover of Baku, and opened to visitors in 1921. The building itself was built by Polish architect Józef Gosławski.
History
The museum's building was constructed between 1895 and 1901, originally as a residence for the Taghiyev family. It was designed by Polish architect Józef Gosławski, in imitation of the Italian Renaissance style. It is large, stretching over an entire block and reaching four floors in some parts. Since 1914, Baku Commercial Bank, which was headed by Taghiyev, had been situated in the mansion.
When the Red Army entered Baku in April 1920, Taghiyev's residence was immediately confiscated. Under a resolution of the USSR People's Commissariat, the residence was established as the State Historical Museum in June 1920, just two months after the Bolsheviks took Baku.
“National Museum of History of Azerbaijan” enters the record as museum in Baku, Azerbaijan. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what National, Museum and History can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“National Museum of History of Azerbaijan” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, National, Museum and History provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2664428. VIAF identifies the subject as 139369980. The Library of Congress control number is n81059943. Authority coordinates are 40.369, 49.840. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1920, 1921, 1895 and 1901.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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This entry incorporates text from “National Museum of History of Azerbaijan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.