Baradari
of Kamran Mirza is a summer
pavilion in Lahore, Pakistan. It was built in 1540 by Kamran
Mirza, a son of first Mughal emperor Babur, and a brother of the second Mughal emperor Humayun. The building is believed to be the oldest existing
Mughal structure in Lahore, and is the only garden in Lahore's Shahdara
Bagh area that was not converted into a
funerary monument.
After Babur's
death in 1530, Kamran Mirza seized Lahore and laid a garden
in which the baradari was built in 1540. At the time of
construction, the baradari was on the western bank of the River Ravi in
the Shahdara Bagh region, though it now stands on an island in
the middle of the river, due to shifts in the river's course. The pavilion
remained in use by Mughal royals until the 18th century.
After the British
annexed Punjab in 1849, the pavilion was turned into a tollhouse for
boats crossing the river. It is also mentioned as Turgurhwallee Baradari in an 1867 map of Lahore, where
it was shown located on the western bank of the river.
Part of baradari's eastern facade had been damaged by floods by the 1850s, while the baradari's
second story had also been damaged or dismantled around the same time. The
pavilion sustained further damage by flooding in 1958. It was
reconstructed in 1989.
