Sepah Street

Sepah Street in Qazvin is the first designed street in Iran which was constructed in Safavid period when Qazvin was the capital of the country. It was officially registered as the first street of Iran in 2008. The street was constructed by the order of Shah Tahmasb in the north of the old town (Shahrestan-e Qadim) neighborhood or Shapur Gate (Hesar-e Shapur), at the same time as Jafar Abad was being developed, that is the mansions and houses on two sides of the street, as well as Saadat Abad garden, Dowlatkhaneh mansion and harem, along with western and eastern gardens. Th name of the street was apparently driven from the name of a street in Herat where Shah Tahmasb had lived when he was a crown prince. The street was then stretched southward to reach the cemetery of the southern city of Qazvin (Kohanbar Cemetery) at the time of Shah Safi. After a while, the name of street was given to a part of the old town (Shahrestan-e Qadim) neighborhood and accordingly, it was called Street Neighborhood.

Under the reign of Naser al-Din shah, at the time of Sa’d al-Saltaneh’s stewardship, who got later the ruler of Qazvin, the grand guest house of Qazvin and post office (Chapar Khaneh) and Telegraph office of India and Europe were established in the southern part of the street, that is from the opposite of the grand mosque of Qazvin to the current Sepah intersection. Also, Sepah street was connected to Tehran Street (the current Old Tehran) from the east of guest house, in a narrow passage which is now the vegetable bazar. The guest house and post office were ruined in 1931 replaced by Sabzeh Meydan which was then abandoned because of the lack of water. With the arrival of railway to Qazvin, after a while, and the establishment of a station in the south of the city, Sepah street was more stretched to reach the station and the square and Sa’d al-Saltaneh, which was later destroyed in the south side of a street going from Tehran Gate to the greeting place of Shahzadeh Hossein. As the first urban area which was distinctive from the organic, without a plan, squares, small squares or passages, Sepah Street in Qazvin is known as the first designed street, a direct path planned for urban traffic. 

This passage was established under the reign of Safavid kings, from the gate of Aali Qapu to a place that is now located nearly in front of the Jama Mosque of Qazvin. Then, after the transfer of the capital to Isfahan, a more evolved example was built named Chahar Baq (Four Gardens). Therefore, considering it as the “first street of Iran” seems quite reasonable.