Baku ( Baky) the beautiful capital of Azerbaycan ( Azerbaijan)
Sprung on the costs of the silvery Khazar (the Caspian), Baku is one of the holy centers of Zoroastrianizm, after the discovery of oil, within a very short historical period changed into a very important commercial city. Its advantageous geographical location and abandunce of valuable raw materials as oil, salt, maroon, saffron and others helped its rapid growth. With the development of feudalism a lot of new feuds appeared in the territories near Baku. There were built small but strong family towers-donjons in the center of their lands, forming together a single system of warning in the case of outside dangers. Baku still remains as the biggest populated locality on the entire western cost of the Caspian Sea.

The earliest discription of Baku of that period was made by the native geographer of Middle Ages Abd or Rashid al-Bakuvi. Ih his work written in 1403 he writes
"...the city has two extraordinary fortified strong stone castles. One of them, the biggest is near the sea, where waves waste its walls. This is the castle which the Tatars (Mongols) couldn't capture. The other castle is higher than the first one. Its top is destroued by winds. A special feature of this city is the constant wind which is blowing day and night. here are deposits of tar and oil, oil is extracted daily for more than two hundred camel pack-loads. Near them, there is another oil spring, which is ceaselessly pouring out oil day and night, this oil is as white as jasmine oil, its rental estimates thousand dirharns. The town, a territory of about 22 hectars located on the hills, was surrounded by the city walls."
The most ancient part of the Baku was its coastal part. It is not surprising that the earliest memorials, that date back to VI century B.C. ("Maiden Tower"), have been preserved in that part

With the growth of significance of baku as a commercial city, the caravan -sarais built around the Maiden Tower, were a kind of medieval hotels, which as a rule , belonged to some merchant guilds of different cities, each bearing the name of its owner. There were merchants living and trading in baku, they came not only fom nearby towns, but also from the fatherest towns of the Caucasus, Iran, Central Azia, Russia, India, Europe. The highest rise of the Baku in the epoch of feudalism was at the time when, as a result of a distractive earthquake in Shirvan, the capitol of the State moved from Shernakhi to Baku. As a whole development of such places as Baku, is an evidence of a conciderable growth of cultural, commercial and political contacts of the state of Shirvan, which also included Baku (XV-XVI centuries). It is enough, as we think, to give just one fact, as a proof of it that in 1572 Baku was visited by the gents of the English trade company, who displayed interest in the Baku oil.

F.Decket, a member of that mission informed that "... there is a strange phenomenon near a city called Baku. There is an extraordinary amount of oil coming into the surface of the earth and people from distant corners of all Persia come to get it."
The Russian traveler I. Berezin, who visited Baku in the middle of the XIX century described the Baku as follows:
"... the streets of city are so narrow and entangled, that after a month in Baku I still don't know where a street begins and where it ends." We must note that this chaotic style of building had its advantages in defending the city from invaders, as well as for softenning the gusts of the city's winds. The natural and climatic conditions of the Absheron penninsula palyed an important role in the formation of the Urban structure of Baku in the middle ages

The curvilinear planning of streets not only assisted in stopping the gusts of the ice-cold North wind of Baku in winter, but it also created coolness in day time, owing to the shadow falling from walls of houses in streets. It should be added that since the XV century there was a perfect, composed of separate ceramic elements, underground sewer system, connected to all houses located within the Baku castle. The religion (ISLAM) played a very important role in the spiritual life in the city at that time That is why the rows of dwelling houses were interspersed with little block mosques. These mosques were used not only for performin religious rites but also for gatherings and meetings, some kinds of clubs for inhabitans of the block.
As all big cities in the midieval East, Baku was developing with traditional town-planning system "ark"-"rabad". This system included the citadel of the Governor with a small territory surrounded by the walls and extensive suburbs adjacent to it.
Starting approximatly from the second half of the XIX century, the social and political order in Azerbaijan was characterized by the transfer from feudalism to capitalism. If in majority of other provinces of Azerbaijan, as well as in the entire Caucasian region, this transfer was not realy felt for a long time and patriarchal relations were still remaining, but in Baku, unlike the above said, this process went very speedily. Rapidly developing industry, strenthening of economical and cultural relations with forign contries, birth of a new class of industrialists and proletariat shortly changed Baku into one of the biggest cities of Russia arid, the biggest city of Caucasus. It is enough to mention only such a fact, that in the period between 1897 and 1913 the population of Baku grew thrice and exceeded 500,000, while the growth of the Moskow in the same period was 68%, and in Sanct-peterburg 71%.

Attracted by the possibility to earn for living quckly easily, thousands of vargants, adventurers and other anti-social elements streamed to Baku from the near and distant places. The ethnic and confessional composition of the urban population was very diverse. It is evident from a such fact, that in very short petiod of time together with the large "Taza Pir" mosque there were constracted such a big orthodox cathedral as Alexander Nevsky, Lutheran Kirsch church. Catholic georgian church and Jewish Synagoge on the newly developed lands.
The Inner City, enclosed in city walls, was unable to receive such a great number of immigrants, and the process of formation the city, having spontaneously been tipped out of the historical core, started to form at the feet of its walls. The newly built part of the city consisted generaly of fundamentally built residential houses in classical style, ornaments of those houses contained oriental themes. The coastal part of the city which linked the coastal residential districts and the oil-fields of Bibi-Heybat with the industrial zone "Black City", were intensively developing as well. Besides the dwelling houses of considerable scale, there were also big municipal offices, includin The City Duma. For its architecture, as well as for improvement and transport, Baku in 19th century was approaching the biggest cities of USA, Europe and Russia.
Such kinds of urban and demographic booms in Baku were caused by the development of science and industry, significance of oil as one of the most important types of raw material for producing energy, as well as the abrogation of the farming system for the so-called "oil-lands" in 1872. Approximately in this period the elaboration of the first general complex plan of baku started. The most detailed , full and professionaly made General Plan for the Development of the City was made by engineer V. Vender Nonne.
The growth of Baku at the end of XIX and XX centuries as the world center for extracting and refining of oil, promoted the inflow of the capital of some of the biggest companies of the world such as "Nobel Brothers", Rotshild's Mazut Trade Firm, division of the "Royal Dutch-Shell" company, a subsidiary of the Rockfeller company, etc. Baku realy changed into the oil capitol of the world. In accordance with it it would be very interesting to quote a prominent Russian diplomat and scientists P. Chikhachev. Describing the oil deposits of the Absheron Peninsula he noted:

".. As to the daily prodaction of oil it has grown so much, that it exceeds the production of oil in the USA, because the average output of oil wells in USA is 11.500 kg, in Baku - 40.000 kg. That is why Mr. Marvin (reporter for The Morning Post) states that even the most enterprising industrialists of Pennsylvania can not imagine, how the Absheron Peninsula and the bordering region are rich in oil."
Together with the western oil industrialists a big group of local entrepreneurs were originating and successfuly acting in that period. A special place among them occupied such big oil industrialists az H-Z. Tagiyev, M. Nagiyev, M. Mukhtarov and others. A considerable part of profits obtained from oil production and refining were spent by them on improvement of Baku, on its architectural sight. The first branch of the modern water supply system of Baku was laid at H-Z. Tagiyev's initiative in 1991. The first public transport in the city (horse driven tramway) begun to function in 1892. The active life of the city, its busy contacts, including cultural relations with the biggest cities of Europe and Russia, caused the necessity of the construction of a number of public buildings, including the places of entertainment. A special place among them is held by the building of the theater, the first theater in the Caucasus, as well as in the whole Near and Middle East.
The architectural styles and methods used in the construction of the city were very diverse, and depended not only on the skills of architects, but on the customer's taste too. Buildings in "new renaissance", "new gothic, "new baroque", "classicism", "ampere", "modern" styles appeared in Baku.
Together with the immeasurable significance of Baku as a center of oil industry of the world, it is enough to mention, that in 1900 Baku produced more than half of the world's oil output, due to its significance as the biggest trade and transport junction, where the most important marine and rail road routes of the Russian Empire, Iram and other Eastern countries joined. The route connecting Baku with Tbilisi and the Black Sea coast of Georgia enabled to export the main parts of oil products to the world market. Touching upon the architecture of Baku in the period of capitalism, it is enough to mention the fact that comparatively within short time Baku had one of the most remarkable periods of its development - the city, its heart, beating for many centuries within the castle walls, in just several years gave birth to a new city center in the best traditions of the world architecture. New residential districts appeared, garden and park systems were laid, transport and city communications were organized, oil producing and refining industrial districts were founded. The sight of Baku changed, owing to the work and talant of architects and builders, city acquired a unique and original sight and became famed sa "The Paris of the Orient".