 Cooch Behar Palace or Koch Behar Palace, also called the Victor Jubilee Palace, is a landmark in Cooch Behar City in West Bengal.
Cooch Behar Palace was built by Maharaja Nripendra Narayan. It was designed on the model of Buckingham Palace in London in 1887. Cooch Behar Palace, noted for its elegance and grandeur, is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India. Cooch Behar Palace is idealised from the concept of classical European style of Italian Renaissance. Cooch Behar Palace is a brick-built double-storey structure in the classical Western style covering an area of 51,309 square feet. This magnificent palace was built by the famous Koch king Maharaja Nripendra Narayan in the year 1887. Cooch Behar Palace was raised on a basement of 1.5 metres in height; this double storied brick building covers an area of 4768 square metres. Cooch Behar Palace extends 120 metres from north to south and 90 metres from east to west. The frontal facade of Cooch Behar Palace consists of a series of arches resting by an alternate arrangement of narrow and broad piers to contain single and double Corinthian pilasters respectively. The whole structure is 395 feet (120 m) long and 296 feet (90 m) wide and is on rests 4 feet 9 inches (1.45 m) above the ground. Cooch Behar Palace is fronted on the ground and first floors by a series of arcaded verandahs with their piers arranged alternately in single and double rows. A porch in Cooch Behar Palace is projected in the centre to provide main entrance to the building through the Durbar Hall. There the Cooch Behar Palace helps in recalling the memory of St. Peter's Church at Rome. There is a Durbar Hall is dodecagonal in shape, resting on four arches supported by massive Corinthian pilasters and projecting a lantern at the top. The intrados of the dome is relieved in stepped patterns and flanked by a small elegant balcony with twelve window openings at the base. In the centre of the Durbar Hall, the marble floor contains the royal insignia in pietradura. The building of Cooch Behar Palace contains more than fifty rooms/halls of varied dimensions which include the bedrooms, dressing rooms, billiard room, kitchen, and dinning hall, dancing hall, library, toshakhana and the ladies gallery. There are certain rooms in Cooch Behar Palace that deserve special attention for their beautiful Roman and gothic paintings in the ceiling as well as in the interior wall surface. The intros of the dome are carved in stepped patterns and Corinthian columns support the base of the cupola. This adds variegated colours and designs to the entire surface. There are various halls in the palace and rooms that include the Dressing Room, Bed Room, Drawing Room, Dining Hall, Billiard hall, Library, Toshakhana, Ladies Gallery and Vestibules. The articles and precious objects that these rooms and halls used to contain are now lost. |
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