Peoples' Friendship Palace

The Peoples' Friendship Palace is one of the iconic buildings of the second half of the 20th century in Tashkent, a symbol of seismic modernism, and one of the largest concert venues in the capital of Uzbekistan, where Uzbek pop stars and famous musicians from around the world perform almost every week.

The palace was built in 1980, and began operations in 1981. The architect of the project was Evgeny Rozanov, who also designed the building of the Museum of the History of Uzbekistan, and some similarities can be found between these buildings. A year later, the appearance of Peoples' Friendship Square was formed in front of the building, which houses a monument to the Shamakhmudov family and the Peoples' Friendship stele (today replaced by a 60-meter flagpole with a huge flag of Uzbekistan), and one of the architects of the square was Sabir Adylov, who had previously created the project of the monument "Courage".

The building of the Peoples' Friendship Palace has a square shape, and the facades are decorated with rhythmic panels of unusual shape, which not only create shade, but also form air currents, which ultimately helps to improve the cooling of the building, especially given the hot climate in Tashkent. Inside there is a large concert hall for 4,000 people, consisting of an amphitheater and a group of balconies. The foyer is decorated with a variety of decorative elements: the ceilings are decorated with exquisite chandeliers, and huge panels and various ornaments are placed on the walls, where guests can pass the time while waiting for the concert.

For almost half a century of its history, the Peoples' Friendship Palace has become a venue for thousands of concerts, meetings of heads of state and international summits have been held here. And for fans of Soviet architecture, it will be a real discovery. There are also two interesting facts in the chronicle of the palace. In 1994, with the advent of the Uzbek sum national currency, the palace appeared on the reverse side of the 100 sum bill, the largest at the time, but in 2019 it was withdrawn from circulation and now it can only be found among collectors. In 2008-2018, the palace was called Istiqlol, which translates as Independence.

Today, the Peoples' Friendship Palace remains one of the best concert venues in Tashkent, with good acoustics and modern sound equipment. The palace is not included in the programs of classic tours of Tashkent, and it is included only in excursions dedicated to the architecture of the city in the XX century. However, it can be easily visited when traveling on the Tashkent metro, as it is located right next to the Druzhba Narodov metro station (Xalqlar do'stligi).