During the 20th century, two main Revolutions in Iran embodying opposing ideological approaches, brought significant changes in all aspects of Iranian society that were reflected in and affected the various dimensions of the private gardens in Shiraz, the ‘city of garden’. Under the leadership of Mohammad Reza Shah’s Pahlavi regime (1941-1979), the private gardens belonging to the nobility with their introverted architectural formula and chaharbagh layout, were systematically bought, restored and transformed into public places for hosting Shiraz Art Festival in 1967. Therefore, these gardens experienced dramatic alterations. Changes were made to dictate alien behavioural modifications, reshaping and secularizing the foundation of Islamic and Shi’a morals to legitimise the kingship of Mohammad Reza Shah. Subsequently, following the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and after a decade of decay, these gardens that have been overtly westernized in Pahlavi Iran, once more witness changes. As a result of political shifts and the domination of the religious authorities, the new kind of cultural activities and vocabularies have been formulated in these gardens voiced by religious-minded scholars and money-minded managers alike during the post-revolutionary era. This paper aims to narrate the impact of complex political changes alongside with various approaches upon the material and social dimensions of Shiraz’s gardens of architectural merit. Through interpreting social and political contexts, the paper will scrutinise the factors that have determined the different fortunes for these gardens before and after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Nowadays, Shiraz is first among the most important tourist attractions both in Iran and the region: two of its gardens were registered as World Heritage Sites (WHS) in 2011.

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