Bangalore Palace: A Fairy tale Castle!!!

Officially, the Bangalore travel diaries have started.And the first place in the list was Bangalore Palace, which reminds so much of a fairy tale castle.

Bangalore Palace is considered as the pedestal of Windsor castle and the magnificent Palace lies in the heart of the city.

Hope this justifies the title 🙂

We reached there by cab and the left side entrance have the ticket counter. The ticket cost was 230/person including the audio guide which to me was a little over priced.We took our tickets and audio guide and started exploring the Palace.

the hunted elephant’s head preserved in chemicals

Bangalore Palace have a different architectural style compared to the palaces I have visited in Kerala.The Palace was built for the Maharajah of Mysore in the 18th century.

The palace has an eye-catching design and has been crafted in a Tudor style with Gothic windows, foiled windows, battlements and turrets- emblematic of Georgian and Victorian design prevalent in medieval England.

We walked to the first floor through the wooden stairs and the audio guide made it easy to understand each place inside the Palace.The Palace is decorated with Greek and Dutch paintings and also paintings by Raja Ravi Varma.

The love the Wadiyar’s had for hunting is evident from the head of an elephant killed by Jayachamaraja Wadiyar which hangs at the entrance of the palace. There were also photographs displayed during the hunting by the kings on the courtyards.

The main attractions of Bangalore Palace include a chair to weigh jockeys. The Wadiyar rulers were passionate about horse racing and this chair is shaped in the form of a horse’s hoof, with a measuring stand on the right and a weighing scale to the left.There were tables made of elephant legs and elephant tusks were also kept in display.

The Maharaja’s courtyard in the palace contains a fountain, which was gift by the King of Spain, Don Alphonso, when he visited the palace. After he was displaced and came to India, Don Alphonse was extremely impressed by the comfort the courtyard provided him.

This was primarily because of the Moorish architecture which was also common in Spain. It was after this visit that Alphonso gifted Maharaja Wadiyar the fountain and bench.

The Royal Bench

There were huge dressing tables, chairs , lamps and perfume bottles for the Queen’s courtyards and lot of paintings displayed on the walls which were a real treat to eyes.

There were beautiful chandeliers of different colors hanged on the roofs which doubles the beauty of the palace.

The Palace is not that huge as compared to the other palaces. You can take a complete round in one hour time.

After we explored inside the palace, we moved to the beautiful garden in the front of the Palace which increases the beauty of the palace.

Garden is well maintained and there are pathways built to walk inside the garden. It is indeed a pleasant  feeling to stroll down through the beautifully bloomed flowers.We sat on the benches in the garden and enjoyed the beauty of the Palace again and clicked few pictures 🙂

Bangalore Palace is worth a watch and next time you visit Bangalore, make sure you visit here.