The City Palace Museum is the jewel in the crown of the Udaipur City Palace Complex. It is here that you can immerse yourself in the history of the Maharanas of Mewar, and really get a feel for their culture and how royalty lived.
Construction on the City Palace started in 1559, making it the oldest part of the City Palace Complex. The various Maharanas continued the work over four and a half centuries, in a number of phases, giving rise to the Mughal and British influences in the palace architecture.
In 1969, the City Palace was opened to the public as the City Palace Museum. This was done out of necessity, in order to generate income and maintain the building after India became a democracy, and royal rulers had to give up their states and fend for themselves. The Museum is now overseen by the Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation.
The current custodian of the House of Mewar, Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar, hasn't merely been content with restoring the City Palace to its former glory. Around 20 projects are underway to develop it into a world class museum.
Once such project is the exhibition of priceless royal family photographs. The interior of the Museum is also adorned with priceless artwork, which documents royal history before Udaipur got its first camera in 1857. A collection of personal portraits of Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar is on display as well.
Being the largest part of the Udaipur City Palace Complex, the City Palace Museum stretches 33 meters high, 333 meters long, and 90 meters wide. Exploring the Museum is like negotiating your way through a maze. There's a good reason for this. It was designed to hinder enemy attack.
The Museum is open 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m daily. Find out about entry ticket options.
Take this visual tour of the Udaipur City Palace Museum to discover some of its highlights.
