A palace that grew for four hundred years
Most palaces in Rajasthan were built by one great ruler and patched by the rest. Udaipur's was built by all of them, one courtyard at a time.
Tradition says that while hunting in these hills, Maharana Udai Singh II met a holy man meditating on the ridge above Lake Pichola. The hermit told him that a palace built on this spot would never be taken. In 1559 he began building.
The old capital: for centuries the Sisodia rulers of Mewar held court at Chittorgarh, on its great rock in the plains to the east.
Why move: by the middle of the sixteenth century Chittor had been sacked twice, and Udai Singh II wanted a capital the Mughals could not easily reach.
At a glance
- Built
- From 1559, added to for four centuries
- Built by
- Udai Singh II and later Maharanas
- Open
- As a museum since the 1970s
- Allow
- Three hours, half a day with the Crystal Gallery
- Best time
- Opening time, October to March
- Photography
- Rules change, so check; no flash
- Getting there
- Up the lane from Jagdish Temple to Badi Pol
- Capital for good: nine years after building began, Akbar's army took Chittor in February 1568, and the new city on the lake became Mewar's capital.
- Where it started: the oldest part is the Rai Angan, the royal courtyard, raised around the very spot where the hermit had sat.
- Each age added its own: some courts went up in the early seventeenth century, when Mewar had made peace with the Mughals and Mughal gardens and arches were in fashion.
- Later layers: others rose in the eighteenth century, and the last great additions came in the early twentieth.
- One long wall: the facade is about 244 metres long and some 30 metres high, a dozen or so palaces joined by stairs, passages and courtyards that read from the lake as one cream wall of balconies.
- Never only a monument: the Maharanas ruled Mewar from here until the kingdom joined independent India in 1949, and the former royal family still lives in one part.
- The museum: in the 1970s much of the older palace, including the zenana, the women's quarters, opened as a museum, now run by a charitable foundation established by the family.
- Two hotels: two other wings became the hotels of Shiv Niwas and Fateh Prakash, so you walk through a museum, a working institution and a family home at once.
- A disputed headship: the headship of the house has been disputed between branches of the family since 2024, and we leave that to them. The palace is cared for, lived in and still used for the old ceremonies.
- The true king: Mewaris still say the real king of Mewar is Eklingji, a form of Shiva whose temple stands north of the city, and the Maharana only his diwan, his regent.
- Duty and memory: our guides point out how often the god, the sun and Chittor appear in the decoration. It is a building about duty and memory as much as luxury.
How to read the palace before you walk in
Stand on the far shore at Ambrai Ghat and look at the palace for five minutes before you visit. You will see a fortress at the bottom and a pleasure palace at the top.
Closed below: the lower walls are plain, thick and almost windowless, built to be defended.
Open above: higher up, the walls open into jharokhas, rows of arched windows, cupolas and chhatris.
The key to it all: the dangerous world was below, at the level of the gates. Up on the ridge, safe behind the hills, the court could afford to look at the water.
Words to know
- Jharokha
- Projecting stone balcony
- Chhatri
- Small domed kiosk
- Araish
- Hand-polished lime plaster
- Kanch work
- Coloured glass and mirror inlay
- Mewar emblem
- Sun over Chittor, Rajput and Bhil
- A maze on purpose: narrow, twisting corridors and low doorways meant no one could charge through, and an armed man had to stoop as he entered.
- Built around a hill: you climb what feel like several floors and step out into a garden. The Badi Mahal court sits on solid rock while rooms around it hang several storeys above the street.
- Local materials: a stone core, faced with marble in the grandest rooms and lime plaster elsewhere. The best rooms use araish, polished by hand until it shines like marble.
- Colour from glass: Mewar's craftsmen set coloured glass, mirror and mosaic into walls and ceilings in kanch work, so the old rooms glow in the right light.
- The sun everywhere: the Sisodias claim descent from the sun god, Surya, and a great sun face hangs in the lower halls.
- The emblem: a sun over the fort of Chittor, flanked by a Rajput warrior and a Bhil archer, honouring the forest people of the hills who fought beside the Maharanas.
- The motto: jo dridh rakhe dharm ko, tihi rakhe kartar, which our guides translate roughly as: the Creator protects those who stand firm in their duty.
- Mixed styles: Rajput balconies, brackets and fortified gates meet Mughal formal gardens, cusped arches and marble pools.
- From abroad: later rulers added European glass, English crystal and painted tiles from China and the Netherlands.
- Learn the vocabulary: our guide to reading Rajasthani architecture makes every palace in Rajasthan easier to read.
Walking the palace, court by court
The museum route climbs, twists and doubles back. This is the order in which we walk it, and what we stop to look at.
Badi Pol, the great gate
The main entrance: built in 1600, it opens off the lane that runs down from the Jagdish Temple.
- The toranas: a row of carved marble arches stands between the great gate and the triple gate.
- Weighed in gold: tradition says the Maharanas were weighed here on important occasions against gold and silver, which was then given to the people.
- Look at the ground: it rises. Everything about the palace is uphill.
Tripolia and Manak Chowk
Tripolia: the triple-arched gate of 1725 leads into the Manak Chowk, a great open court in front of the facade.
- Elephant trials: elephants were once brought here and tested in mock fights before campaigns.
- The Holi bonfire: on the night before Holi the royal household lights its bonfire here, and local families still crowd in to watch.
- In the morning: the court is quiet and the long facade above, with its tiers of balconies, is at its best.
Ganesh Deodhi and the Rai Angan
A modest doorway: you enter the old palace at the Ganesh Deodhi, where an image of Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, guards the threshold among mirror and painted walls.
- Where it began: beyond is the Rai Angan, small and plain compared with what comes later, and that is the point.
- Imagine it bare: our guides ask guests to picture the ridge as rock and forest, with a single ascetic sitting under a tree.
Badi Mahal and Amar Vilas, the garden on the hill
Out into the air: after a long climb you step unexpectedly into the open.
Badi Mahal: the great palace, built on top of the natural hill about 27 metres above the ground, with a central garden of trees, a marble pool and arcades all round.
- Amar Vilas: the highest court, a raised Mughal-style garden with cusped arches around a square marble tank.
- Stop here: through the arches the whole of Lake Pichola lies below, with the Lake Palace floating in the middle.
- On the walls: paintings show the palace in its prime, including a view of Jag Mandir and an elephant fight.
Dilkhush Mahal and the mirror rooms
Dilkhush Mahal: the palace of joy, from about 1620, with some of the most beautiful glass work in the palace around it.
Kanch ki Burj: the tower of glass, its walls set with mirror mosaic in red and silver.
- Sheesh Mahal: the palace of mirrors, lined with mirror work that seems to multiply every lamp.
- Morning flicker: when a guard opens a shutter and the light comes in, the whole room flickers.
- Go early: these rooms are small and crowd quickly.
Mor Chowk, the peacock court
The postcard court: three peacocks in high relief, made of thousands of pieces of coloured glass in blues, greens and gold, their tails fanned around arched niches.
- When they were made: in the reign of Maharana Sajjan Singh in the late nineteenth century, when the court was richly redecorated.
- Why peacocks: India's national bird and the bird of the monsoon in Rajasthani poetry, fitting for people who waited every year for rain.
- The royal balcony: above the court, the Maharana watched performances in the square below.
The zenana and the museum galleries
Zenana Mahal: a large court of rooms, alcoves and inward-looking balconies, where the queens and their households lived out of sight of the court.
The galleries: much of it now holds the museum's collections.
- What hangs there: around the Laxmi Vilas Chowk, Bhim Vilas and Krishna Vilas, Mewar paintings of Radha and Krishna, royal processions, festivals, hunts and boat parties.
- Krishna Kumari: Krishna Vilas is linked to the daughter of Maharana Bhim Singh, who died in 1810 when her marriage became the cause of war between Jaipur and Jodhpur.
- A sad story: one of the saddest in Mewar, and good guides tell it gently.
Chini Chitrashala and Manak Mahal
Chini Chitrashala: a small room lined with Chinese and Dutch ornamental tiles, showing how far Mewar's taste and trade reached.
- Manak Mahal: the ruby palace, an audience hall with a raised alcove inlaid with mirror glass, where the Maharana sat for formal occasions.
- Surya Chopar: on a lower floor, the largest sun face, a great gilded disc honoured on cloudy days when the Maharana could not see the sun in the sky.
Fateh Prakash, the Durbar Hall and the Crystal Gallery
The last great builders: the southern wing belongs to them.
Minto Hall: in 1909 the Viceroy, Lord Minto, laid the foundation stone of a Durbar Hall in the reign of Maharana Fateh Singh, first named after him.
- Inside: a tall formal room hung with chandeliers, with royal portraits and a gallery from which the women of the court could watch.
- The Crystal Gallery: upstairs, English crystal chairs, tables, sofas, a bed and a fountain, ordered by Maharana Sajjan Singh from F and C Osler of Birmingham in 1877.
- Left in crates: he died young in 1884, and much of the crystal is said to have stayed packed for generations.
- Separate entry: the gallery is entered separately from the main museum.
The paintings, and what they tell you
Most visitors walk past the paintings looking for the next view. Slow down. The paintings are the best guide to the palace there is.
An early school: Mewar was one of the first Rajput courts to develop its own school of painting, and its painters worked for the Maharanas for centuries.
The early style: bold and flat, in saturated reds, yellows and greens, showing Krishna among the cowherds, scenes from the epics and the musical moods called ragas.
- The court on paper: later painters showed the Maharana at Holi, sprayed with coloured water, on boat parties on Pichola, hunting boar in the hills and receiving visitors in these very courtyards.
- A record of court life: a festival picture shows how carpets and awnings were laid, where the women watched from screened balconies and how the lake was lit with lamps at night.
- Find the painter's window: our guides stand guests in front of a painting of the palace, then walk them to the window where the painter must have stood.
- A working studio: we can arrange a visit in the old city, where artists still grind mineral colours and paint with squirrel-hair brushes. See our miniature painting experience.
- Beyond the paintings: royal arms and armour, palanquins, howdahs and textiles.
- Maharana Pratap: look for the weapons associated with Udai Singh II's son, who fought the Mughals at Haldighati in 1576. Our journal piece on Maharana Pratap and Haldighati tells his story.
Local tip
Mewaris speak of Maharana Pratap with real feeling. Ask your guide about him in front of his weapons, and listen to how the answer changes tone.
The best hour and the best season
At opening time the courtyards are cool and nearly empty. By eleven they are full of school groups and selfie sticks. The palace is the same building, but it is a different experience.
As the gates open: we always bring guests in at opening time.
Climb first: go straight up to the Badi Mahal and Amar Vilas while the light is low and soft on the lake.
Then work down: through the mirror rooms and Mor Chowk before the crowds catch up.
Season by season
- Oct to Mar
- Warm, clear days, lake usually full
- Dec and Jan
- Cold stone rooms; bring a shawl
- Apr to Jun
- Hot; come early, finish by ten
- Jul to Sep
- Green hills, low clouds, quieter
- Festivals
- Holi, Gangaur, the Mewar Festival
- Late morning retreat: when the museum fills, cross to Fateh Prakash and the Crystal Gallery, which are quieter.
- Afternoons: can work in winter, when the light warms the facade, but the morning gives you the courtyards almost to yourself.
- Monsoon drama: the palace is quieter, the hills behind the lake turn green and the view from Amar Vilas is at its most dramatic. Our guide to the best time to visit Udaipur goes month by month.
- Holi: in February or March, the royal Holika Dahan bonfire is lit in the Manak Chowk on the evening before the festival of colour.
- Gangaur and the Mewar Festival: in March or April, women carry images of Gauri to Gangaur Ghat just below the palace, and the spring Mewar Festival fills the lake with boats and music.
- Worth the crowds: both festivals show a palace that is still the centre of the city's life.
How to visit well
The City Palace rewards a little planning. These are the things we arrange for our own guests, and the things we tell them before they go.
Take a good private guide: the palace is a maze, rooms are poorly labelled in places, and without the stories the courts blur together.
The quiet route: a guide also knows the way round the busiest rooms at the busiest times.
Don't rush it: an hour means seeing corridors, not courtyards.
Before you go
- Allow
- Three hours, half a day with extras
- Guide
- A good private one
- Shoes
- Walking shoes; off at shrines
- Access
- Limited; many narrow stairs
- Bag
- Small, with water and a shawl
- Shoes: floors are polished stone, stairs steep and narrow, and you climb the equivalent of several storeys. Shoes stay on in the museum but come off at shrines.
- Accessibility: the outer courts and Manak Chowk are level, but the old palace is reached only by narrow stairs, with few places to rest.
- A gentler route: tell us in advance and we will plan a shorter route with the best views and fewest steps.
- Cameras: rules on cameras, phones and drones change, so check on the day. Keep flash off, as it damages paintings, and be patient in the small mirror rooms.
- Carry little: there are security checks and tight stairs.
- Dress: it is a family home with shrines, so covering shoulders and knees is wise.
- Touts: ignore anyone outside the gates offering a cheap tour or a visit to a painting school. Book a licensed guide through your hotel or through us.
What most visitors miss
Even guests who have been twice tell us they missed something. These are the details our guides make a point of showing.
The view down to the Lake Palace from Amar Vilas
- The best frame: most people photograph the lake from the first window. From the arches of Amar Vilas the Lake Palace sits exactly in the middle, with Jag Mandir beyond.
- Be patient: wait for a boat to cross the frame.
The faces of the sun
- Everywhere once you look: on gates, over doors, in mosaic and in brass.
- Ask to see: the great sun in the Surya Chopar, and the Mewar emblem with its Bhil archer honouring the forest people of the hills.
The small temples and shrines
Working shrines: offerings are still made inside the palace.
- Rang Bhawan: in the lower part of the complex, the old treasury holds small temples to Krishna, Meera Bai and Shiva.
- Etiquette: remove your shoes and keep your voice low.
The palace from the water
Bansi Ghat: boats leave from the palace jetty here.
- Skip the rushed lunch: many visitors finish the museum and go straight to eat. Take a boat in the last hour of light instead, and watch the facade turn from cream to amber.
- Privately: our page on a boat on Lake Pichola explains how we arrange it.
The palace from Ambrai Ghat at dusk
- Across the lake: go to Ambrai Ghat or Hanuman Ghat, on the western shore, as the palace lights come on.
- The whole length: from here you see the building at once, and understand how it grew.
What to pair with the palace
The City Palace sits at the heart of the old city, and the best of Udaipur is within a short walk or a short boat ride of its gates.
Jagdish Temple, two minutes from Badi Pol
The temple: a steep stair climbs from the lane to a temple to Vishnu, built by Maharana Jagat Singh I in the middle of the seventeenth century.
- The carving: its walls are covered with elephants, musicians and dancers.
- Morning prayers: come before the palace, when the bells ring and local women arrive with brass plates of flowers.
Lake Pichola, by boat
- Look back: the palace was built to look at the lake, and the lake is the best place to look back at it.
- Late afternoon: a private boat takes you past the ghats and island palaces as the light changes.
Jag Mandir, the island of refuge
- Its story: the island palace at the southern end of the lake, where the young Mughal prince Khurram, later Shah Jahan, is said to have sheltered in the 1620s.
- How to visit: stop for a drink on the terrace, or come back for dinner after dark.
Bagore ki Haveli, for the evening
- Down at Gangaur Ghat: the eighteenth-century mansion of a Mewar prime minister, now a museum of daily aristocratic life.
- The show: an evening of folk dance in its courtyard.
The vintage car collection
- Near Gulab Bagh: the late Maharanas' vintage and classic cars fill a former garage.
- For children: a cheerful counterpoint to the palace, and often their favourite stop.
Where to stay, inside the palace or facing it
The finest thing money can buy in Udaipur is a night inside the palace walls, after the gates close and the courtyards fall quiet.
Shiv Niwas Palace, inside the walls
The building: a crescent-shaped wing at the southern end of the complex, built around a courtyard pool with views over the lake.
- Who runs it: the family's own hotel group.
- The privilege: walk out into the palace grounds in the early morning before any visitor arrives, and come back to a quiet courtyard at night.
Fateh Prakash Palace, above the Durbar Hall
- The building: the wing built for Maharana Fateh Singh in the early twentieth century, home to the Durbar Hall and the Crystal Gallery.
- Who it suits: history lovers who want to sleep in the palace the last ruling Maharanas used for state occasions.
Taj Lake Palace, facing it across the water
- On the island: the eighteenth-century summer palace in Pichola, reached only by the hotel's boats.
- The view back: from a lake-facing room you look straight at the City Palace, lit at night like a long lantern on the ridge.
The Oberoi Udaivilas and The Leela Palace, on the western shore
Across the water: both sit on the far shore of Pichola and look back at the palace.
- The Oberoi Udaivilas: the space, gardens and spa for a full retreat between outings.
- The Leela Palace Udaipur: grand lake-view rooms.
- Compare them all: our guide to luxury hotels in Udaipur.
A palace morning, the way we plan it
This is the half day we give guests on their first full day in Udaipur. It follows the light, the crowds and the heat.
- On a longer route: the palace pairs naturally with Kumbhalgarh and Chittorgarh, the two great forts of Mewar, which help explain why the Maharanas built here at all.
- Linking them: our Mewar Lakes and Temples journey connects them, and our page on the Mewar region tells the kingdom's wider story.
Early, Jagdish Temple and Badi Pol
- Morning prayers: start at the Jagdish Temple, then walk down to Badi Pol to be among the first through the gate.
- Pause twice: at the toranas, and at the Manak Chowk to look up at the facade while the court is empty.
First hour, straight to the top
- Climb directly: through the old palace to the Badi Mahal and Amar Vilas, and spend time at the arches over the lake.
- Come down quietly: through the Dilkhush Mahal, the mirror rooms and Mor Chowk while they are still calm.
Late morning, the galleries and the Crystal Gallery
The galleries: work through the zenana and the paintings with your guide.
- Fateh Prakash: cross over for the Durbar Hall and the crystal.
- Finish: with a cold drink on a terrace overlooking the lake.
Afternoon and evening, rest, then the water
Rest: go back to your hotel for lunch and a rest through the heat of the day.
- The water: in the last hour of light, take a private boat on Pichola to see the palace from below.
- The evening: walk to Bagore ki Haveli for the show. Our Udaipur itinerary shows how the other days fit around this one.
