The Parsian Azadi Hotel ( fa, هتل پارسیان آزادی) is one of the largest and tallest hotels in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
, situated in the northern
Evin
Evin is a neighbourhood in the north of Tehran.
The district consists of an old section, filled with orchards and gardens of old houses, and a new section, with high rises and skyscrapers.
It is adjacent to Shahid Beheshti University
Shahid ...
neighborhood, overlooking the city. The hotel has 475 guest rooms & suites.
History
On May 24, 1976,
Hyatt International
Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vaca ...
signed a contract to manage a new hotel to be built by the Royal Estates Administration in Tehran. It was the third Hyatt to open in Iran, following the Hyatt Omar Khayyam in the city of
Mashhad
Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...
, opened in November 1973, and the Hyatt Regency Caspian, a seaside beach resort in
Chalus, opened on March 11, 1976.
The Hyatt Crown Tehran was completed two years later, but only partially opened on September 1, 1978,
due to the then-ongoing
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...
. In February 1979, all foreign Hyatt staff departed the hotel due to safety concerns and the Hyatt Crown Tehran was transferred from the REA to the
Pahlavi Foundation. On February 12, 1979, the Hyatt Crown Tehran was attacked by
Revolutionary Guards
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
. It was extensively damaged and occupied by the Guards, but remained in operation, run by Hyatt-trained Iranian staff.
On December 27, 1979, the Pahlavi Foundation terminated Hyatt International's management contracts for the three hotels, citing the departure of the foreign staff as grounds, resulting in a lengthy international lawsuit filed by Hyatt.
The Hyatt Crown Tehran was renamed the Tehran Crown Hotel and the three hotels were transferred to the Pahlavi Foundation's successor organization, the
Foundation of the Oppressed and Disabled. The hotel was again renamed the Azadi Grand Hotel (Azadi means "Freedom" in Persian) in 1980. The Foundation's hotel division was separated off in 1995, named first Bonyads Hotels, then Azadi Hotels in 1999 and finally Parsian Hotels in 2000.
The Azadi Grand Hotel closed in 2007 for a $50 million renovation overseen by Franco-Italian, Swiss-German and British interior designers and a number of Western/European construction firms. It also underwent seismic retrofitting, due to the danger of earthquakes in Tehran. It reopened the next year as the Parsian Azadi Hotel.
In Media
In January 1979,
Ross Perot
Henry Ross Perot (; June 27, 1930 – July 9, 2019) was an American business magnate, billionaire, politician and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive officer of Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems. He ran an inde ...
and members of his team stayed at the Hyatt Crown Tehran as part of a mission Perot organized to rescue two of his employees from a Tehran prison.
The mission was dramatized in
Ken Follett
Kenneth Martin Follett, (born 5 June 1949) is a British author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 160 million copies of his works.
Many of his books have achieved high ranking on best seller lists. For example, in the ...
's 1983 international bestseller ''
On Wings of Eagles
''On Wings of Eagles'' is a 1983 non-fiction thriller written by British author Ken Follett. Set against the background of the Iranian revolution, it tells a story based on the rescue of Paul Chiapparone and Bill Gaylord from prison in Tehran by ...
'', which was filmed as a 1986 TV miniseries.
Gallery
Image:Parsian Evin Hotel, Chamran Highway, Tehrān, Teheran, Iran - panoramio (1).jpg, Parsian Azadi Hotel, 2013
Image:منطقه_اوین_تهران.jpg, Parsian Azadi Hotel seen from Chamran Highway, August 2015
References
External links
Parsian Azadi Hotel - official website
{{coord, 35.7896, N, 51.3900, E, source:wikidata, display=title
Hotels in Tehran
Hotels in Iran
Hotels established in 1978
Hotel buildings completed in 1978
1978 establishments in Iran