State Museum of Applied Arts of Uzbekistan

The house was built in the early 20th century for a Russian diplomat who commissioned local masters to decorate it in the traditional style. The result is a courtyard house whose ceilings, columns and walls are covered in carved ganch plaster and painted woodwork, and the building itself is the main exhibit.

The rooms around the courtyard hold collections by craft: embroidered suzani from different towns, ceramics from Rishton and Gijduvan, metalwork, jewellery, carpets, ikat silks and skullcaps. Many pieces date from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

It is a good place to learn what you are looking at before shopping for crafts in Bukhara, Samarkand or the Fergana Valley. A small shop sells new work.