Bagherabad Castle

Bagherabad Castle (قلعه باقر آباد), also known as Ariz Fortress, is a Qajar era castle in Bafgh county, Yazd province. The castle is a two-story building and was built on the order of Abdorrahim Khan Bafghi, son of Mohammad Taghi Khan Bafghi in three stages. Initially the north tower of the castle was constructed and ten years later the south tower was added. In the final stage in 1919, the castle’s surrounding wall was erected for protection against outside chaos. The northern tower is about eight meters high, has two floors and is equipped with three stone-throwers and 140 shooters. The southern tower is also two storeys high, octagonal in shape and approximately 11 meters high. There is a corridor that connects the two towers. 

The castle has 45 rooms and two watchtowers. It was constructed from clay and mud as a shelter for the people of the village against bandits and was at times used as a grains stockpile. The Castle contains two original and unique mills for grinding wheat and stripping grain, an anthropology museum, and an exhibition of various mills in Iran. There is also a store for purchasing local handicrafts.

Bagherabad Castle is Iran’s lone round castle in the desert oasis. The castle was listed among the national heritage sites of Iran with the number 13000 on August 13, 2005. In 2020 renovation of the cobblestone walkways and landscaping of the area surrounding the castle were initiated. Starting in 2019 major efforts were undertaken in order to increase its tourist appeal (although in 2020 tourism for the Castle and tourism in general took a dip due to the Corona virus pandemic). Visitors can now spend the night at the location with 31 rooms each housing between two to eight guests and an overall capacity of 128 people. In order to preserve the complex’s historical and traditional integrity and sense of nostalgia, none of the rooms are equipped with a bathroom and in its place a common bathroom within the castle is utilized instead.