Józef Gosławski, a Polish architect and chief architect of Baku from 1893 to 1904, designed the mansion as the residence of the oil magnate Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev and his family. Construction ran from 1895 to 1901 with about 270 craftsmen. It cost 1.2 million rubles, not counting furniture and equipment imported from Russia, France, America and Germany.
The article says the design imitates the Italian Renaissance. It describes the height two ways, four floors in some parts and three stories on all four sides. The Oriental Hall is in a Moorish style, with 20 pounds (9 kg) of gold in its decoration.
Baku Commercial Bank, headed by Taghiyev, occupied the building from 1914. It was confiscated in April 1920, and a state historical museum opened there that June. The Council of People's Commissars used it from 1941 to 1954. The whole building passed to the museum in 2000, and a restoration began in 2005.
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