Today, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, received at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters at Tahrir Palace, so we will shed light on the Tahrir Palace its inception and the events that took place in it.
It is the palace of Princess Nemat Allah Tawfiq, located near Tahrir Square in central Cairo, and the Tahrir Palace is the second seat of witness to the role of Egyptian diplomacy, as the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs moved to this palace, after its first headquarters was Al-Bustan Palace in Bab Al-Luq.
The first floor includes a salon with pictures of the Alawite family, pictures of the presidents of the republic and foreign ministers before and after the revolution, a hall with pictures of the martyrs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, passports of ministers and members of the ministry, in addition to reception salons and a room for 48 individuals.
The ground floor includes the Minister’s office, the grand conference hall, and another for press conferences with an simultaneous interpretation system. There are also several salons to receive visitors and a large dining room for 24 people. The back entrance contains some pictures of the different stages of building the palace.
And this palace was designed by the Italian Antonio Leciak (1856-1946), one of the most prominent architects who worked in Egypt, and the royal family depended on it in constructing its palaces, and in 1907 he became the chief architect of the royal palaces.
The Italian engineer blended in this building between beauty, tenderness, precision and attention to detail in all its parts, and took care of the distribution of shade and light, and the palace had been built mainly for the establishment of Princess Nematullah Tawfiq, who was born in 1881 and died in 1966 and was buried in southern France, and she is the daughter of Khedive Tawfiq. Bin Ismail bin Muhammad Ali Pasha, whose father ruled Egypt from 1879 to 1892, and she is the sister of Khedive Abbas Helmy, who ruled the country from 1892 to 1914.
The princess lived a life of asceticism and austerity during her stay in the palace, due to her Sufi interests and a life of contemplation and asceticism, before she decided to move to a small building adjacent to the palace, and gave her palace to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1930, to be its new official headquarters.
Tue, May. 25, 2021
