Film info

Creator / Collector

Description
We are watching a government building on former Lenin Square (now Freedom Square), in Baku, Azerbaijan. The building is in baroque style and the construction lasted 16 years until 1952. Travel guides say it was made by German prisoners.

In front of the building we watch the statue of Lenin and on the facade of the nearby building a huge banner depicting Brezhnev.

The tour to Baku continues in the oil wells, just outside the city. The cranes, the pipeline, ships as they load oil and a view of the Caspian Sea.

Views of the Old Town. There are picturesque two-storey houses, the Maiden Tower built in the 12th century, the baths of the Shirvanshah palace, the construction of which began in the 13th century and was completed in the 16th century. The film closes with shots of the mosque inside the palace.

Coordinates

Film Information

Holder
Bonar, Andrew Graham

Quality
HD (1440x1080)

Sound
Yes

Color
Yes

Duration (seconds)
107

Format
8mm

Creator's description


Baku, capital of Azerbaijan and well known as one of the early centres of the world’s oil industry. This is where the Swede Nobel, of Nobel Prize fame, won his fortune.

This building here is, I think, the Town Hall, and it is said to have been built by German prisoners of war. Lenin presides over the square named after him, while on the building opposite a benign Brezhnev waves to a non-existent crowd.

Away in the distance is a forest of cranes, while further out are the oil derricks from which this city’s wealth springs.

Baku means “windy city”, and I’m afraid it lives up to its name. If it wasn’t for the wind the walk along the waterfront here would be very pleasant.

In and around the old walled town, dating back to the 17th century, there are several old mosques, baths, courtyards and so on, mostly not in very good condition, an exception being the so-called Maiden’s Tower, which is, however, not very beautiful.

Baku is of course historically a Moslem town, inhabited mainly by Azeri Turks and Tartars and ruled for centuries by the Persians, till the Russians took it over early in the 19th century.
Bonar, Andrew Graham