Umaid Bhawan Palace, located in Jodhpur in Rajasthan, India, is one of the world’s largest private residences. A part of the palace is managed by Taj Hotels. Named after Maharaja Umaid Singh, grandfather of the present owner Gaj Singh. The palace has 347 rooms and is the principal residence of the former Jodhpur royal family. A part of the palace is a museum.
Named after Maharaja Umaid Singh, grandfather of the present owners of the palace, this monument has 347 rooms and once served as the principal residence of the erstwhile Jodhpur royal family. Also called Chittar Palace due to its location atop a hill and use of stones commonly known as Chittar in the building.
It has a total of 347 rooms with a beautifully ornamented 110 feet high central dome.
The architect of the palace was H. V. Lanchester. An astonishing feature of the palace is that no mortar or cement was used in its construction. Rather, carved stones were used and joined together by a system of interlocking positive and negative pieces – something like dove-tailing. It is said that about 5000 men were employed by the ruler in the construction of the Umaid Bhawan Palace during the time of famine. The Maharaja was humane and kind and helped his subjects who had faced starvation. He kept them alive in return for work when building the palace.
Work began on the 18th November of 1929 and completed in 1943, four years before India’s independence. At that time the cost of construction came to somewhere around whooping one crore (ten million) rupees.
Credit NavrangIndia
Picture Credit : Google
