Singapore · 19th century
The Istana houses the offices of the President and Prime Minister of Singapore and is a venue for state events and important official functions.
The Istana is also the office of the prime minister of Singapore and contains Sri Temasek, the official residence of the prime minister since Singapore's independence in 1965, though none of the prime ministers have ever lived there.
The 106 acres (0.43 km2) estate was once part of the extensive nutmeg plantation of Mount Sophia. In 1867, the British colonial government acquired the land and built a mansion to be the official home of the British governor. This continued until 1959 when Singapore was granted self-governance, and the governor was replaced by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara, who was in turn replaced by the president of Singapore.
The Istana was gazetted as a national monument on 14 February 1992.
Text adapted from “The Istana” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Istana ranks #1,131 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #1 of the 3 mapped in Singapore. Founded 1867, it is older than 6% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 717 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 5,362 times in the last 60 days, more than 87% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Singapore compares in the castle statistics.
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