Location
Located in the Thar Desert, Jodhpur, city of high tourist attraction with
all basic amenities for both domestic and foreign tourists.
About Hotel Umaid Bhawan Palace
20th century palace, Umaid Bhawan Palace was built by Maharaja Umaid Singh.
Maharaja Umaid Singh conceived the Palace as a centre piece of his massive
famine-relief scheme. Today a portions of the Umaid palace have been
converted into a hotel and a museum and rest of its is used as residential
purpose for the royal family.
Umaid Bhawan Palace combines architectural extravaganza with aesthetic
triumph, one of its kind.
Umaid Bhawan Palace can qualify for several firsts: the largest private
residence in the world, the finest extant example of art-deco, the only
palace to have paintings from the Ramayana painted by a Polish artist, the
first to use air-conditioning, electricity and elevators, and the most
impressive for its size and dimensions.
The Umaid Bhawan Palace is among the biggest private residences in the
world. A colossal 347 room structure with two monumental wings separated by
a central dome soaring to a height of 185 feet.
The Architecture
Architect, H.V. Lancaster, who planned it, wanted it to rival the Viceregal
Lodge (now Rashtrapati Bhawan) then being planned by Sir Edward Lutyens in
the new capital at New Delhi, also then under construction.
Umaid Bhawan is one of the largest and grandest private residences in the
world, a remarkable example of Indo-colonial and the art-deco style of the
thirties. It took 14 years from 1929 to 1943 and over 3000 artisans to
construct of this magnificent edifice.
The Palace was designed as a smooth combination of European classical
elements interlaced with oriental ones. Furnished with fashionable Art Deco
interiors by the Polish artist and decorator, S.Norblin, the palace consumed
one million square feet of the finest marble. The world of Umaid Bhawan
Palace contained everything that the royalty required - a private cinema
hall, a luxurious swimming pool inlaid with tiles depicting the zodiac,
gigantic royal suites, a soaring rotunda, fancy ball rooms, a majestic
durbar hall, billiards room, ballrooms, banquet halls, libraries, staff
quarters, servant quarters to list a few.
Reaching Umaid Bhawan Palace
By Air: Indian Airlines operates flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Udaipur
and Jaipur.
By Rail: Jodhpur is connected by rail with Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad
and Lucknow. It is also covered by the famous "Palace on Wheels"
By Road: Jodhpur is well connected with Delhi (597 km), Udaipur (260
km) and Jaipur (336 km).
