Cooch Behar Palace

Cooch Behar Palace is a landmark in Cooch Behar city, West Bengal. It was designed in the Italian Renaissance architecture style and was built in 1887, during the reign of Maharaja Nripendra Narayan of the Koch dynasty. It is currently a museum.

The Cooch Behar Palace is noted for its elegance and grandeur. It is a brick-built double-story structure in the Classical Italian architecture covering an area of 51,309 square feet (4,766.8 m2). 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. The 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.

At the southern and northern ends, the Palace projects slightly and in the center is a projected porch providing an entrance to the Durbar Hall. The Hall has an elegantly shaped metal dome which is topped by a cylindrical louver type ventilator. This is 124 feet (38 m) high from the ground and is in the style of the Renaissance architecture. The intros of the dome is carved in stepped patterns and Corinthian columns support the base of the cupola. This adds variegated colors and designs to the entire surface. There are various halls in the palace and rooms that include the grand Durbar Hall or the hall of audience, Drawing Rooms, Dining Hall, Billiard Room, Library, Bed Rooms, Toshakhana, Ladies Gallery and Vestibules. The artifact and precious objects that these rooms and halls used to contain are now lost.

The original palace was partially a 3 storeyed structure, but was subsequently destroyed by the 1897 Assam earthquake.

The palace shows the acceptance of European idealism of the Koch kings.

According to the List of Monuments of National Importance in West Bengal the Cooch Behar Palace is an ASI listed monument.

The Rajbari or the Cooch Behar Palace is a grand monument constructed in the Italian Renaissance form of architecture. The entire monument extends gracefully over an area of 51,000 square feet; about 390 feet in length and 296 feet in width; It's a brick-built structure. Standing 125 feet tall from the ground, the monument features an entrance on the ground floor, leading through a projected porch to the Durbar Hall. The first floor has a series of beautiful arcaded verandas with alternately arranged piers in double and single rows.

Text adapted from “Cooch Behar Palace” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cooch Behar Palace ranks #2,029 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #76 of the 172 mapped in India. Founded 1887, it is older than 5% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 562 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 4,106 times in the last 60 days, more than 81% of the atlas. See how India compares in the castle statistics.

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