Ferdows Garden (Cinema Museum of Iran)

Ferdows Garden is a 19th-century Qajar-era garden estate in the Shemiran district of northern Tehran, whose main pavilion now houses the Cinema Museum of Iran. The garden and its central building date to the reign of Naser al-Din Shah, built originally as a private residence, and later passed through Pahlavi-era ownership before being restored and opened to the public as a cultural park. The mansion at the garden's center was converted into the Cinema Museum in the late 1990s, with restoration work preserving the building's Qajar-style verandas, brickwork and mirror-mosaic details while adapting interior rooms into themed exhibition galleries. The museum's collection traces the history of Iranian cinema from its early 20th-century beginnings through the pre-revolutionary studio era and into contemporary filmmaking, displaying vintage cameras, projectors, costumes, film posters, and props alongside biographical exhibits on major Iranian directors and actors. Galleries are arranged thematically by era of Iranian film history rather than strictly by object type, moving visitors from silent-era equipment toward more recent digital-era displays. The surrounding garden retains its original Qajar-period layout of plane trees, reflecting pools and shaded walkways, and functions as a public park independent of the museum, with a cafe occupying part of the grounds. Restoration of the main pavilion's facade and interior plasterwork was completed as part of the museum conversion, and the building is maintained as a protected example of Qajar residential architecture.