“Royal Jewellery Museum” , located in Alexandria in the palace of Princess “Fatema El Zahraa”, is one of the largest museums in Egypt. The museum contains around 1,800 artifacts that narrate the story of Alexandria and Egypt. Most of these pieces came from other Egyptian museums and the building used to be home to the United States consulate.
Artifacts that narrate Alexandria story
In the elegant Alexandria district of ”Zizinya” stands the Royal Jewellery Museum, its exquisite neoclassical architecture relating an important segment of Egypt’s history. The museum is housed in a sumptuous building originally built as a summer palace for the family of ”Zeinab Fahmi”, wife of a descendant of Mohamed Ali. On her death ”Fahmi” left the palace to her daughter princess ”Fatemah Al-Zahraa”, who added an east wing to it connected to the rest of the building by a corridor. The palace is a rare gem of architectural excellence that was constructed in the 19th century.
Royal Jewellery
The Museum houses the jewellery and ornaments that queens and princesses of the last royal family in Egypt used to wear.
After the Egyptian Revolution in 1952, all the royal jewellery was expropriated and remained in governmental stores for a long period of time.
A report by the General Administration of Expropriated Money recommended that this jewellery should be used to establish a museum that would display the treasures to the whole world.
Artifacts Royal
The committee that was specified to establish the Royal Jewellery Museum was attracted to the Palace of Princess Fatema El Zahraa. The palace showcases a uniquely European architectural style designed by French, Italian, and Belgian architects. It was erected following the school of “Michael Angelo” using the calm style of coloring and decorations.
Royal Jewellery
The palace consists of two large sections:
The eastern section has two halls and a gallery with a bronze statue of a boy in the center of it. The walls of this section have rich colored windows decorations all over.
The western section consists four large halls with three bathrooms that were coated with decorative colored ceramics.
insignias decorated with gold and diamonds
The museum displays the collection that dates back to the ruling period of “Said Pasha” that consists of some golden watches,Turkish, Egyptian, and European insignias decorated with gold and diamonds, and 4000 Roman, Persian, Byzantine, and Coptic coins.
Roman, Persian, Byzantine, Coptic coins
The building itself as well as decorations inside the palace are masterpieces, they represent ”Byzantine” style. There are a lot of paintings on the ceilings of palace which revile Italian Renaissance. The windows in the corridor between these two wings are made of coloured glass with different kinds of barrocco and rococo designs.