In 2002, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) signed an agreement with the Interim Administration of Afghanistan to restore and rehabilitate a number of significant historic buildings and public open spaces in the city of Kabul. Since then, a range of conservation and urban regeneration efforts, living condition improvements, community development programmes and planning initiatives have been implemented in war-damaged neighbourhoods of the Old City of Kabul.
In early 2003, conservation began of the sixteenth-century Baghe Babur in Kabul, where the first Mughal Emperor Babur is buried. Now managed by an independent Trust, the restored 11-hectare garden not only re-establishes the historic character of the site with its water channels, planted terraces and pavilions, but also provides the population of Kabul with a space for recreation and cultural events.
In order to ensure that the restored landscape and monuments can be maintained to appropriate standards, the Trust aims over time to achieve financial sustainability by generating revenue from entrance fees and appropriate public events in the various facilities.
Located in a busy commercial area in central Kabul, conservation of the eighteenth-century Timur Shah Mausoleum commenced in 2003. In addition to safeguarding an important historic landmark, the project has enabled the training of Afghan professionals and craftsmen, as well as the reclamation of a sizable garden around the monument, which had over recent years been encroached upon by informal traders.
The Asheqan wa Arefan neighbourhood, which takes its name from an important shrine at its centre, represents one of the last surviving clusters of historic fabric in the Old City, which suffered massive damage in the early 1990s. Since early 2003, 11 homes and 15 historic public buildings have been conserved, and the living conditions of more than 60 households improved through access to small-scale grants and building advice in this and adjacent areas.
Among the socio-economic initiatives supported in the Old City are home-based training and literacy courses for women, and the operation of a restored community bath-house, whose revenue is used to meet the costs of neighbourhood upgrading. A second bath-house is currently under restoration. AKTC staff continue to work closely with members of the Kabul Old City Commission to oversee development in the historic fabric, as well as providing technical support to planners from Kabul Municipality and the Ministry of Urban Development. In 2008, work began on the formulation of a planning framework for the Old City and on proposals for a national policy for urban heritage preservation, with support from the World Bank.
Chihilsitoon Garden, a 12.5-hectare public site, is Kabul’s largest historic public garden. Based on the successful rehabilitation and sustainable operation of Babur’s Garden, in 2015 the Aga Khan Trust for Culture commenced a multi-year rehabilitation programme in Chihilsitoon Garden with the intention of providing high-quality public spaces for social and cultural interaction, educational programming, and sport and recreational activities.
The Garden rehabilitation is a collaboration between the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, the Government of Afghanistan and German Federal Foreign Offive/KfW. Heavily damaged in 1979-1980, the site remained unused and neglected in the years that followed. The landscape of the site, which contains extensive vegetation including mature evergreen trees, continues to be used by the general public for basic recreational and sports activities and forms one of the most important public gardens in the city even in its dilapidated condition.
The Aga Khan Trust for Culture rehabilitated the Garden and Palace and invested in upgrading improvements and training initiatives, in the wider neighbourhood surrounding the Garden, to underpin the revitalisation and long-term sustainability of the site and ensure an equitable distribution of resources through the upgrading of drainage, improvements in access and socio-economic training programmes that improve environmental conditions and livelihoods.
Now complete, the rehabilitated Chihilsitoon Garden provides users with high-quality landscapes and building spaces capable of containing and promoting the rich and diverse forms of social, cultural and economic expression manifested in Afghanistan.
The fabled 19th Century Stor Palace (also known as the Qasre Storay) has been restored to its former grandeur by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) in collaboration with the governments of Afghanistan and India. The conservation project, which employed more than 300 Afghan craftsmen and laborers and generated 282,000 man/days of employment, was completed in July 2016.
The Trust also conserved key historic buildings, including houses, mosques, shrines and public facilities, in the war-damaged quarters of the old city of Kabul.
The Trust continues to work on Chihilsitoon Gardens and other projects in Kabul, all part of the Trust – and the Aga Khan Development Network’s – ongoing commitment to the people of Afghanistan.
