Swedish daily features Baku's role in creation of Nobel Prize A forgotten chapter of shared history

An article by Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Sweden, Zaur Ahmadov, has been published in the Swedish newspaper Karlskoga Tidning-Kuriren, shedding light on a little-known chapter of shared Azerbaijani-Swedish history — Baku’s contribution to the creation of the Nobel Prize. Caliber.Az highlights the key points from the piece.

In the publication titled “Baku’s Contribution to the Nobel Prize – A Forgotten Swedish Story Worth Telling,” the diplomat recalls that a significant portion of the capital that laid the foundation for the Nobel Prize came not from dynamite production but from oil extracted in Baku in the 19th century.

Ahmadov details how the Nobel brothers — Robert, Ludvig, and Alfred — played a key role in the development of Azerbaijan’s oil industry by founding the company Branobel, building the world’s first oil tanker Zoroaster, and laying the first oil pipelines. The diplomat underlines that Baku oil became a driving force of technological progress and transformed the daily lives of millions across Europe.

“The oil from Baku heated homes and lit up the cities of Europe — kerosene extended the day and transformed the daily lives of millions.”

At the same time, Ahmadov notes, the rapid industrial growth also had severe environmental consequences. Due to massive oil leaks and air pollution, the area around the oil fields became known as the “Black City.” Amid this industrial chaos, the Nobels created a green oasis — Villa Petrolea — where tens of thousands of plants were cultivated, and schools, hospitals, and workers’ homes were built.

The ambassador recalls that after the October Revolution, traces of this shared Azerbaijani-Swedish heritage nearly disappeared. During the Soviet era, Villa Petrolea fell into neglect, and the memory of the Nobels’ activity in Azerbaijan was almost lost.

However, after Azerbaijan restored its independence in 1991, this story gained new life. At the initiative of the Azerbaijani state, large-scale reconstruction transformed the former “Black City” into the modern White City — an ecologically renewed, green, and rapidly developing district of Baku.

Today, Villa Petrolea remains the only museum outside Sweden and Norway dedicated to the Nobel legacy.

Ahmadov also highlighted that in 2024, Azerbaijan and Sweden marked the 150th anniversary of the Nobels’ Baku oil heritage and the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. As part of the celebration, an online meeting was held between students of Baku’s School No. 56 and Sweden’s Jensen Gymnasium in Stockholm.

“Acknowledging Azerbaijan’s historical role in the creation of the Nobel Prize during the Nobel festivities — and inviting the Baku Nobel Heritage Fund to take part — would help present a more complete and fair picture of the prize’s origins. It would also be an act of acknowledging this historical fact — that part of the Nobel Prize’s fame and prestige actually rests on Azerbaijani soil and history,” the ambassador added.

By Khagan Isayev