Round Temple, Sheki

What is the Round Temple?

It's a domed stone rotunda inside Sheki Fortress, known locally as Dairəvi məbəd, the Round Temple. In the 19th century it served as the Orthodox church of the Three Saints for the Russian garrison and officials of Nukha, as Sheki was called until 1968. There have been no services for over a century; the building is now the Museum of Folk and Applied Arts.

It stands on the main lane between the South Gate and the Palace of the Shaki Khans, so nearly everyone visiting Sheki walks past it. It's small — 22.90 by 15.18 metres including the wings, according to the 1981 heritage record — but it stands out among the plain barracks and offices around it: a drum of dressed pale stone, a dome, and three low wings under copper roofs.

Is it worth it? As a stop on the way to the palace, yes — ten minutes and a good photo with the mountains behind. As a reason to come to Sheki, no. If the door is open, the small crafts collection inside is a bonus rather than the point.

Caucasian Albanian temple or Russian church?

In short: the documents point to a 19th-century Russian Orthodox church, while the official Azerbaijani line is a Caucasian Albanian temple of the 5th–6th centuries. The sign and some guidebooks follow the second version, church historians and encyclopedias the first. Nobody has settled it, so here are both.

What's on record. The earliest reliable description of the present building is in the newspaper Kavkaz in 1846, which is why the Baku Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church dates it to no later than that year; Wikipedia uses 1853, when a priest named Yevstafiy was appointed. Specialists who surveyed the fortress in the mid-20th century concluded that everything inside the walls except the palace and a mosque dated from Russian rule. The 1981 heritage record describes features of Russian provincial Empire style.

Where the Albanian idea comes from. The round core, built of finely dressed limestone, looks quite unlike anything else in the fortress, and some researchers have dated it to Caucasian Albania — the early Christian kingdom in today's Azerbaijan, unrelated to the Balkan country. In 2020 Azerbaijan's Ministry of Culture presented it as a 5th–6th-century Albanian temple. Lonely Planet notes that the sign claims the 7th century or earlier, but that the building was largely rebuilt in tsarist times.

A third story, repeated by the traveller Segal in 1902 and the writer Rashid bey Afandiyev in 1925, holds that the Russians turned the khan's private mosque into a church in 1828. Azerbaijani Wikipedia and the eparchy reject it: the khan's prayer room was a tiny space inside his house about 50 metres to the north, and it survived until the 1990s.

If you want an undisputed early church, that's the Church of Kish, 5 km north of town — a different building altogether.

The Museum of Folk and Applied Arts

When it's open, the rotunda holds the Sheki Museum of Folk and Applied Arts. Azernews describes work by local potters, embroiderers, coppersmiths and shebeke makers, old Sheki ceramics such as jugs, vases and pots, men's and women's traditional dress, folk musical instruments, and finds from excavations around Sheki.

Keep expectations modest. It's one round hall with side wings, not a major museum; Lonely Planet calls the collection a hotchpotch of handicrafts. If you've already seen a shebeke workshop and Shakikhanovs' House, you won't learn much new. The real draw is standing under the dome and seeing how thick those walls are.

The museum publishes no admission price, and it isn't on the ticket page of Azerbaijan's Reserves Management Center. Bring a few manat in cash: small museums and craft shops in the fortress usually want cash, and most ATMs are down around the main square rather than up in the old town.

What to see at the Round Temple

• The rotunda — the round drum of pale dressed stone and its dome; step back a few dozen paces along the lane for the full shape.
• The three wings — built of river stone and brick, they turned the plan into a cross. The eparchy dates them to the late 19th century; Azerbaijani Wikipedia says before 1853.
• The graves in the yard — tombstones of Russian officers who died in Nukha, and of David Utiyev, a priest who worked as a missionary among the Ingiloy villagers of Tasmalı in 1875.
• The mountain backdrop — forested ridges of the Greater Caucasus rise right behind the dome; on misty mornings it looks its best.
• The museum — crafts, ceramics and costume from Sheki, if the door is open.
• The "nun" legend — locals say the fortress walls, seen from above, spell the khan's name in Arabic script, with the round church as the dot of the letter nun. A story, not a proven fact.

Round Temple, Church of Kish or Khan's Palace?

Based on Wikipedia, the Baku Eparchy, Report.az and YesGo's pages on the Church of Kish and the Khan's Palace; prices are unofficial.

Mosques and churches in Sheki compared

Every place of worship in Sheki that YesGo has scored. Tap a column header to sort.

Nearby and on your route

44

Sheki Fortress

Sheki, Azerbaijan

40 min · Free; museums inside extra · 3 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Sheki Fortress

43

Sheki Old Town (Yukhari Bash)

Sheki, Azerbaijan

1 h 30 min · Free; museums on the way charge · 3 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Sheki Old Town (Yukhari Bash)

41

Palace of the Shaki Khans

Sheki, Azerbaijan

45 min · 15 AZN for foreigners (unofficial) · 3 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Palace of the Shaki Khans

44

Upper Caravanserai

Sheki, Azerbaijan

30 min · Courtyard free (unofficial) · 6 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Upper Caravanserai

How to do it right

• Photograph the temple in the morning from the lane: the light is on the rotunda and the mountains behind are still hazy.
• Door shut? Ask the fortress attendants whether the museum is working today and when it opens.
• Go in this order: gate, Round Temple, then the Palace of the Shaki Khans, so you never double back.
• Walk all the way round: from the back you can see where the round core meets the river-stone wings.
• Want a genuinely early church? Head to Kish; here you're looking at the architecture of Russian-era Nukha.
• Afterwards, walk five minutes downhill to the Upper Caravanserai for tea.

Questions