A tour of royalty at City Palace, Udaipur

The city of lakes Udaipur, offers a magnificent combination of modern and traditional. Being in our travel bucket for quite some time, we chose this destination for holiday during the October Dusherra break. Here is a photo journal of royalty at City Palace, one of the most important landmarks in Udaipur.

The main entrance to the City Palace building is on the right. Manek chowk lies straight.

A pretty a restaurant by Lake Pichola and Fateh Prakash Palace lie on the way towards the main entrance. From the restaurant you can view the stunning Jag Mandir palace in the middle of the shimmering lake.

The City Palace complex is huge beyond imagination. The complex houses an armory section, small temples, a huge collection of kitchen ware, soldiers and war uniforms, flags of those times, palaces/rooms of queens, royal paintings, last remains of Maharana Pratap and lot more. You have to walk a lot from one complex to another and also need strong legs to mount stairs – many of them! Do not hurt your legs by wearing heels. Wear shoes or flats, since walking inside City Palace can be quite tiring.

Armoury at Pratap Gallery

The weapons from the time of Maharana Pratap and his last remains are on display at Pratap Gallery. This section also has his statue along with his beloved horse Chetak.

Badi Mahal

Also known as the garden palace, Badi Mahal is one of the prettiest and the highest point inside the City Palace. With beautifully carved 104 pillars, galleries, expansive balconies and gardens, the space was used to hold celebrations and festivals.

Badi Chitrashali Chowk

Constructed by Rana Sangram Singh 2, Badi Chitrashali Chowk was an entertainment space by the rulers then. With murals, colored glass and a protruding balcony on side, this space is synonymous of royalty at City Palace.

Toran

These eight ornamental stone arches were constructed by Rana Jagat Singh1. The history of this spot is quite interesting. At this very place the rulers used to be weighed against gold or silver and the equivalent value would be distributed to the needy. This was a practice on special occasions.

Toran Pol

One of the exit gates named Toran Pol was by constructed by Maharana Karan Singhji. This gateway leads from Moti Mahal to Manek Chowk.

Ticket price

Several combinations of tickets are available at the counter.

• 30 INR to enter the City Palace and wander in the outer premises.
• 250 INR is the price to enter the museum complex.
• 250 INR to take your DSLR camera inside or else deposit your camera in locker.

There are several other palaces within the complex for which ticket prices are different and often touch the sky.  However, its worth the price. 

Timing- 9am to 4:30pm

Time to spend- On an average 3 hours