The town of Djulfa and its countryside were evacuated by the order of Shah Abbas in 1604; all the stone-masons were chosen to be sent to Esfahan, where they were especially useful to the Persians for constructing new buildings, he allowed them to erect churches in Esfahan and Julfa. The thirteen churches that still survive in New Julfa were built between 1606 and 1728 and architecturally are a mixture of Armenian and Persian styles.