Chehelsotoun Hall

The large restaurant of the hotel whose two floors have the capacity of catering one thousand people, is in fact a museum of painting, illumination, mirror encrusted stalactites, and plaster moulding which are imitated from artistic masterpieces of Qajar and Safavid periods. The ceiling of this restaurant is modeled after fretworks of the ceiling of Chehelsotoun's Verandah; it only differs from Chehelsotoun in that the ceiling of Chehelsotoun is made of wood, whereas the ceiling of the restaurant, with the same very plan has been plaster moulded and painted. In the middle of the ceiling, one concrete plane is set up which is embellished with colored glasses and the stars in the space between its cadres are adorned with mirror works. The decorations of the restaurant's ground floor are made entirely in the style of the Safavids.

Twenty-three exquisite paintings, the masterpieces of Master Shajanian, cover thirty square meters of this floor. Across the entrance door, a fine hearth catches one's eyes. To build it, the craftsmen have employed the original techniques of Layehchini and illumination. In the two sides of this exquisite fireplace, under the stairs, and around the entrance door of the restaurant toward the kitchen, there are painted doors each of which is an intricate and fine work. Being attentive, one can detect various designs, portraits and miniatures in them. The paintings of all these doors are the works of the great Iranian artist Master Sanaei. The designs and mirror works of the above floor of the restaurant are based on the style of the Qajar. The designs of Gol va Morgh (flowers and birds) are all the masterpieces of the late artist Seyyed Jafar Rashtian. The portraits and the huge tableau on the right of the entrance door of the breakfast restaurant, which has more than fifty portraits, are the masterworks of Master Ebrahim Jabbar Beik. In the space between the upper floor of the restaurant and the corridor rooms of the first floor of the hotel, a small hall is located whose walls are carefully decorated with Tongbori and moqarnas. In one side of this hall, there is an antique piece both sides of which are decorated with mirror encrusted stalactites. There is also a painted glass, which has remained from the Qajars, and which is one of the exquisite pieces ever created. In order to harmonize these works with Qajar School of art, the designers have put up three pairs of painted Qajar doors; these doors have been fixed after repairment, refinement and paintings of their frames. These doors endow this floor with a special grandeur and grace. To create a harmony between Persian original embellishment, on the one hand, and the stone walls and acoustic ceilings which were already constructed, on the other, wooden cartouches with gilded acoustic pieces of the ceiling like antique golden frames, strips have been fixed over the pieces and then painted. The velvet covered seats of the restaurant, modeled after the engravings of Perspolis