A palace with a thousand doors, Hazarduari Palace. It is a sight to behold. Its beauty is rivalled only by the wonders of the world. The palace was earlier known as Bara Kothi. It is located in the campus of Kila Nizamat in Murshidabad, West Bengal.
It was built in the nineteenth century by architect Duncan Macleod, under the reign of Nawab Nizam Humayun Jah of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Construction began on August 9, 1829, under the Governor-Generalship of William Cavendish. It was completed in December 1837 taking almost 8 years to be constructed.
The name of the palace Hazarduari means “one with a thousand doors”. It has been named so for it actually possesses a thousand doors, of which a hundred are fake. These are made of solid stone to provide an even distribution to the palace. They also served the purpose of tricking predators and making them easier targets. The campus except for this palace, has, in addition, the Nizamat Imambara, Wasif Manzil, the Bachhawali Tope, Murshidabad Clock Tower, three mosques out of which one is the Madina Mosque, and the Nawab Bahadur’s Institution. Other buildings include residential quarters. It is situated on the east bank of the Bhagirathi River, which flows just beside it.
The palace has now been transformed into a museum which houses collections from the Nawabs like priceless paintings, furniture, antiques and so on. It is most famous for two artefacts. One is a chandelier and another a collection of mirrors. In 1985, the palace was handed over to the Archaeological Survey of India. The Hazarduari Palace Museum is regarded as the biggest site museum of the Archaeological Survey of India. It has got 20 displayed galleries containing 4742 antiquities out of which 1034 has been displayed for the public.
The chandelier is the second largest in the world after the one at Buckingham Palace and was a gift from Queen Victoria. The mirrors are placed in such a way that the person standing between them will not be able to see his own face, but others will.
