Hazarduari Palace - It Is Placed On The East Reservoir Of Bhagirathi River

HAZARDUARI PALACE

AT

MURSHIDABAD

Hazarduari Palace is situated in the Murshidabad district of west Bengal State of India,and the palace with a thousand doors, is the chief tourist attraction of Murshidabad. Built in 1837 by Duncan McLeod for the Nawab Najim Humaun Jah, a descendant of Mir Zafar, it has a thousand doors (Only 900 are real) and 114 rooms and 8 galleries.

It is now a museum and has an exquisite collection of armour, aplendid paintings, exhaustive portraits of the Nawabs, works of art that include beautiful works of ivory from China and many other valuables.

The enclosure where the palace is situated is known as Kila Nizamat or Nizamat Kila. The campus except this palace, has in addition the Nizamat Imambara, Wasif Manzil, the Bachhawali Tope, Murshidabad Clock Tower, three mosques out of which one is the Madina Mosque, and the Nawab Bahadur's Institution. Other buildings include residential quarters.

It is situated on the east bank of the Bhagirathi River, which flows just beside it. The palace is rectangular in plan (130 meters long and 61 meters broad) and is a good example of Indo-European architecture. The front facade of the palace, which has the grand staircase, faces north. This staircase is perhaps the biggest one in India.

The Indo-European architecture of the palace and the royal staircase add to the grandeur of the palace. River Bhagirathi flows besides the palace and the view looks stunning in the evening when the palace is beautifully illuminated.

The main palace along with other structures including Nizamat Imambara, Murshidabad Clock Tower, Madina Mosque, Chawk Masjid, Zarud Mosques are enclosed in the Kila Nizamat.

It includes portraits of nawabs, pieces of ivory, Swords used by Shiraj-ud-Daulla and his grandfather, Nawab Alivardi Khan and even some vintage cars used by various nawabs and their families.

If you plan to go to Murshidabad, then allotting an entire day to visit the palace will save you much time as the vicinity has much more to offer, in addition to the palace

By Air

The nearest airport is NSC Bose Airport, Kolkata. Murshidabad is around 182 km from Kolkata.

By Train

Berhampur Court is the nearest station and is well connected to Kolkata. It takes around 6 hours from Kolkata to Berhampur via rail route.

By Bus

Berhampur and Kolkata are very well-connected to the rest of India via the country’s road network. Buses ply frequently from Kolkata to Murshidabad and Berhampur.