Top choice in Baku
On an unassuming backstreet, this enticing place started life as a 19th-century bathhouse but is now a veritable ethnographic museum of handicrafts and knick-knacks that's sometimes used as a film set. Reliable Azerbaijani food covers a similarly wide range, but really you come here for the atmosphere.
Over a dozen rooms are themed to different historical eras, from rustic craftsman's workshops to Soviet aparachik's office.
2.09 MILES
Vast and jaw-droppingly original, this Zaha Hadid building is a majestic statement of fluid 21st-century architecture forming abstract waves and peaks…
0.93 MILES
This tapering 29m stone tower is Baku’s foremost historical icon, with rooftop views surveying Baku Bay and the Old City. Possibly millennia old, its…
2.79 MILES
Yarat means 'create', a spirit that's in ample evidence in this centre's many thought-provoking installations that don't shy away from sociopolitical…
1.45 MILES
Completed in 2012, this trio of sinuous blue-glass skyscrapers forms contemporary Baku's architectural signature. The three towers range from 28 to 33…
0.91 MILES
This splendid confection of sandstone walls and domes was the seat of northeastern Azerbaijan’s ruling dynasty during the Middle Ages. Mostly 15th century…
0.61 MILES
Ever-popular with strollers, this leafy piazza forms Central Baku’s natural focus. The fountains for which it is named include one topped by shiny…
9.56 MILES
The unique Ateşgah is an 18th-century fire temple whose centrepiece is a flaming hearth. Arching above is a four-pillared stone dome with side flues which…
1.62 MILES
This joyous tailor-made gallery uses struts and tubing to create a wide variety of intimate viewing spaces, in many of which you can recline on bean-bag…
1. Archangel Michael Russian Church
0.42 MILES
Originally built in 1845 for worshippers from the Russian Imperial Navy, today the modest Archangel Michael Russian Church is the hub for Baku’s Orthodox…
2. Armenian Church of St Gregory the Illuminator
0.55 MILES
The sturdy shell of this 1887 stone church remains disused for lack of Armenians, a reminder of the brutal cultural divide that remains as the fallout of…
0.59 MILES
The grandest historic mosque in central Baku, Təzə Pir was built between 1903 and 1914, funded by a female philanthropist. More-recent renovations added…
0.61 MILES
Ever-popular with strollers, this leafy piazza forms Central Baku’s natural focus. The fountains for which it is named include one topped by shiny…
0.68 MILES
A fine statue of Azerbaijan's 12th-century 'Shakespeare' stands proud in the stepped gardens leading up from the Literature Museum that's named in his…
0.68 MILES
The greatest attraction of this museum for most visitors is the western facade of the building it inhabits: a fine early-20th-century structure with…
0.74 MILES
Well-presented exhibits on Azerbaijan’s history and culture might miss the odd century here and there, but there’s more than enough to fill several hours…
0.78 MILES
The minimal remnants of what had once been the palace, bath-house and garden of Baku's 18th-century khans is to be rebuilt as a museum, with interactive…