Dar al-Fonun — the "House of Arts and Crafts" or "Polytechnic" — was Iran's first modern secondary school and university, founded in 1851 to bring European scientific and technical education to Iran. It imported professors from Austria and France to teach medicine, engineering, chemistry, and military sciences at a time when these subjects existed in Iran only in fragmented traditional forms.
The building in central Tehran — a 19th-century structure with European classrooms around an Iranian courtyard — is still in use as a school. The exterior and courtyard can be seen from the street; entry requires permission. It is worth stopping outside for the historical weight of the place: Dar al-Fonun was the foundation stone of Iranian modernity, the institution that first taught chemistry, photography, journalism, and modern medicine in Persian.