Egypt's Modern Hindu Palace

[Guest guest]

"The palace's striking exterior was the responsibility of Marcel,

who reproduced a motley of busts, statues, elephants, snakes,

Buddha's, Shiva's and Krishna's."

 

Editor's Note: It would seem that the Baron's Palace in Greater

Cairo, after the Great Pyramid and Sphinx of Giza, is subject to

more fables, legends and rumors than any other monument in Egypt. I

was astounded to hear from a guide, who was very serious, that the

old palace was build upon a type of turnstile that would rotate the

whole building so that its windows were always facing the sun. Of

course, that was urban legend in Cairo, but for many years, this

building in Heliopolis has ignited the imagination of the local

population with all manner of fables, legends and rumors.

Today, the Baron's Hindu Palace remains the subject of countless

rumors. From time to time new rumors spread about this landmark

which has been deserted for many years. It's haunted by bats, stray

dogs, and others believe by ghosts. And while the place attracts

some architects for it richness, it also seems to have attracted

teenagers for their wild parties. They would break into the place on

weekends, drink beer and smoke hashish. In the late 1990s, the

palace was said to be filled with tattooed, devil-worshipping youths

holding orgies, skinning cats and writing their names in rats' blood

on the palace's walls. Of course, as old houses go, we suppose it

could or could not be haunted, but the palace now has two guards who

are responsible for making sure that nothing too extraordinary

happens inside.

 

The Palace's builder was the Belgian-born industrialist, Baron-

General Edouard Louis Joseph Empain (1852-1929) the prodigal son of

a village school teacher who became one of Europe's greatest

colonialist entrepreneurs of the 20th century. Empain had extensive

business interests in Indonesia and in time became a well known

amateur Egyptologist. He arrived in Egypt during January, 1904,

intending to rescue one of his Belgian company's overseas projects,

which was the construction of a railway line linking Matariya to

Port Said. That project had run afoul of British interests and he

ended up losing it to the Britons. Beaten in the railway department,

Empain lingered in Egypt, however, instead of cutting his losses and

going back home. Those who knew him claimed then that he had fallen

madly in love with the desert. Others murmured that, despite a long-

standing affair in Belgium, which had been blessed with two

illegitimate children, he had succumbed to the charms of Yvette

Boghdadli, one of Cairo's most beautiful socialites. He then came up

with the idea of acquiring low-cost land and using it to build a

residential area linked to Cairo by fast public transportation. He

set up the Heliopolis Oasis Company in the following year.

 

His efforts culminated in 1907 with the building of the new town of

Heliopolis, out in the desert ten kilometers from the center of

Cairo. It was designed as a "city of luxury and leisure", with broad

avenues offering sweeping monumental perspectives, equipped with all

necessary conveniences and infrastructure, including water, drains,

electricity, hotel facilities such as the Palace Hotel and

Heliopolis House, and recreational amenities including a golf

course, racetrack and park. In addition there was housing for rent,

offered in a range of innovative design types targeting specific

social classes with detached and terraced villas, apartment

buildings, tenement blocks with balcony access and workers'

bungalows.

 

The new city also represented the first large scale attempt to

promote what later came to be called the "modern Arab style", known

in its own day as the "Moorish style". However, for his own

extravagant house, that was build between 1907 and 1910 and

overlooks the town, he chose an architectural style that was very

different.

 

For his own home he chose a prestigious location in Heliopolis and

ordered Alexander Marcel, a French architect and a member of the

prestigious French Institute, to build him a Hindu palace. Some say

it was supposed to be more or less a copy of the temples of Angkor

Wat in Cambodia that he had seen during his travels in that country,

while others say it is modeled on the fabulous Hindu temples of

Orissa.

 

Empain brought the best Indonesian artists and sculptors for its

construction. They built it on an artificial elevation to enable the

Baron to watch the rising of Heliopolis. The palace's striking

exterior was the responsibility of Marcel, who reproduced a motley

of busts, statues, elephants, snakes, Buddha's, Shiva's and

Krishna's. The sophisticated interior was the responsibility of his

French associate, Georges-Louis Claude. This team was also

responsible for the construction and decoration of the Oriental

Pavilion attached to the Royal Palace of Laeken in Belgium.

 

The Palace was, of course, built in a very select neighborhood.

Amongst other lofty neighbors, to his left facing Avenue Baron was

the Arabesque palace, which is now military Headquarters, but which

originally was the home of Boghos and Marie Nubar Pasha. It was the

pasha who assisted Baron Empain in purchasing the 6,000 acres of

empty desert at one pound each on which he built Heliopolis.

Diagonally opposite stand the former residence of Sultan Hussein

Kamel, who reigned over Egypt between 1914 and 1917. Today, that is

a presidential guest house.

 

Since visitors are not allowed into the palace, not much is known

about its interior today. It consists of two floors with two

additional subterranean floors. The underground floors contain a

family mausoleum, a kitchen and the servant's room. There are two

elevators and even a tunnel that connects with the nearby church

built by the Baron.

 

Of course, the Baron himself was the first to occupy the palace. He

entertained all of Egypt's hotes de marques including King Albert

and Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians during the Pre-World War I visit

to Egypt. Although dwindling in numbers, there are those who still

remember when the landscape surrounding the Hindu Palace was a

wonderland festooned with ascending green terraces each with its own

set of erotic marble statues and exotic vegetation. As guests

negotiated the terraces on their way to the grand steps leading into

the awesome palace foyer, they felt as though some mythical Deus was

watching from the palace's interior. These theatrics pleased the

Baron to no end.

 

Next to occupy the palace was his playboy son, Baron Jean Empain. He

entertained his guests either at the Heliopolis races or at his

innumerable palace balls where he cut a dashing figure with his

multiple consorts. It was an American cabaret dancer Rozell Rowland

a.k.a. Goldie who finally nailed him to the altar. The 'prince' and

the showgirl had met in a Cairo night club where she performed

painted entirely in gold. The last of the Baron's family to occupy

the palace were Janine and Huguette Empain, who actually preferred

the lounges of the trendy Heliopolis Sporting Club or the Roof

Garden of the old Semiramis Hotel to the sepulchral halls of their

grandfather's palace. The palace was finally sold off by its owners

in 1957 to two families, Alexem and Reda, who were of Saudi origin.

 

Today the spark of the place has vanished. It has become an

architectural masterpiece that produces incredible stories and

rumors, but like these stories and rumors, is void of inner beauty.

Gone are the Fresco murals, massive gilded doors, balustrades,

parquet floors, gold plated doorknobs, and the Belgian mirrors which

were wrenched from their sockets. Now it is best known for the bats

which inhabit it, and desecrate the floors with their droppings.

 

The Egyptian government would perhaps like to turn the palace into a

desert museum, or maybe a pantheon for Egypt's great. Unfortunately,

they do not own the building and those who do are said to have an

asking price of $50 million US. That is far more than the Supreme

Council of Antiquity's annual budget. The owners talk of turning the

palace into a gambling casino or even a Euro style medical center.

Unfortunately for the owners, their options are limited. Law 117

forbids the selling or purchasing of buildings that are deemed to be

antiquities. So for now it would seem, the Baron's Palace remains

one of those landmarks that is yet to see the light of restoration.

 

No doubt incredible stories will continue to come out of this palace

and its lost fortunes. None however will be more unbelievable than

the one about the priceless architectural treasure left to decay and

crumble in full view of every minister, VIP, tourist and other air

passenger as they motor up the airport road on their way in or out

of Cairo.

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/baronspalace.htm