Description of the attraction
Formerly known as Jag Niwas, the Lake Palace located in the ancient city of Udaipur is now considered one of the most luxurious hotels in the world. It is located on the small (16,000 sq m) rocky island of Jag Niwas in the middle of the beautiful Pichola Lake.
The palace was built during 1743-1746 during the time of Maharan Jagat Singh II - the ruler of Rajasthan, as his summer residence. At the request of Jagat Singh, it was designed in the likeness of the beautiful palaces of Agra, "facing" to the east, and white marble was used as a building material. The building is a multi-tiered structure, with a huge courtyard, numerous open terraces, colonnades, swimming pools and an upper room, ideally round in shape, with a magnificent dome instead of a roof. The walls of the palace are decorated with exquisite stucco molding, inlaid with black marble, multi-colored mosaics.
During the Indian Uprising of 1857, it was in Jag Niwas that the Europeans who were in Udaipur were hiding. After that, this architectural masterpiece was practically abandoned. It slowly collapsed under the influence of wind and moisture, until in the second half of the 20th century its owner, a descendant of the rulers Bhagwat Singh, decided to turn it into a huge luxury hotel. The designer who undertook to restore and decorate the palace was the American artist Didi. It was under his strict guidance that the abandoned and dilapidated building received a second life. And in 1971, the hotel was taken over by the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces group, which in 2000 carried out a second restoration of the palace.
At one time, Vivien Leigh, the Shah of Iran, Queen Elizabeth, Jacqueline Kennedy visited the Lake Palace.
