Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces – one of the largest luxury Asian hotel network with hundred years of history and 112 hotels located around the world. This Indian network of hotels is the most interesting one because far ago Indian princes and princesses formerly lived in these luxury palaces.
Rambagh Palace that is located in Jaipur, the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan in the Northern part of the country.
When approaching to this architectural splendor, you will drive into the magnificent huge garden with oval flowerbeds and sculptured cropped fruit trees: papaya, mango and oranges and Lalique fountain on the lawn. You can find the description of the garden in the book of the Englishman Peter Cote “Most beautiful gardens of the world.”
History of the Rambagh Palace
The British architect Sir Swinton Jacob, who came to build the Jaipur the new capital for the Maharajas, built a small building in the Rajput style. The estate was named the Rambam, after the Maharaja Ram Singh. Rambagh – that is, Ram’s Garden.
Palace, gradually grew from a small building to a huge masterpiece. So that you cannot embrace it with one glance. In Rambagh Palace, the heir to the throne Mormukut Singh was brought up and, finally, he made Rambagh his official residence. And here he brought his wife, the most beautiful woman in India.
Rambagh Palace Jaipur – India’s first hotel-palace!
”In the summer of 1933, in London, he came to participate in the polo tournament . All the newspapers wrote about it then: a handsome man with a fortune of 100 billion pounds, the owner of the palace that cost £ 10m and jewelry at 60 million pounds”.
The love story of the Sawai Man Singh II and the Princess Gayatri Devi, who Vogue magazine in 1940 included in the list of the ten most beautiful queens of the world, is now told all the TVs in the rooms of Taj hotels. One of these hotels was the palace of the Rambagh. “I was married to the Maharaja in 1940 – you can hear Maharani’s voice from the screen – and the palace of the Rambagh has become my home … the most beautiful room was my room with colored couch in the palace, two chairs on silver legs, bed under a silk canopy, mirrored dressing table and mirror bathroom. ” Maharani’s Suite today will cost you 155 000 rupees per night (it is more than $ 2,500). Presidential Suite will cost much more expensive — almost $ 12,282 per night. The total number of rooms in the Rambagh Palace Jaipur is 79 rooms of six different categories.
Most rooms in this palace-hotel are royally luxurious: oak door mirrors cover in gold, marble tables and red-yellow-green benches with mountains of hand-made embroidered pillows. Here you feel not like a guest of the hotel, but like a guest of a huge famous palace. The British royal family once stopped there, Jack Kennedy, Hedy Lamarr and her husband, and even Nikita Khrushchev. In 1957 the sale of the palace appeared as a topic of the conversations. “I am very worried – Maharani recalls – I’m the bride that arrived at the Rambagh, and it was my home for the half of my life.”
Maharaja Mormukut Sawai Man Singh II was the first Indian prince, who turned his palace into a five-star hotel in the early 60’s. For a long time choosing a management company – and ultimately chose the Taj Group. Other princes then condemned him – and then they themselves have done the same.
In 1970, the Maharaja died of a heart attack. His widow Gayatri Devi stayed in Jaipur, and lived up to 90 years old, and died in 2009. Her life might seem fabulous, but we know almost nothing from her memoirs before their wedding with Maharaja. He married twice (and those were happy marriages). The first time in 1924 – on Maharani Marudhar Kanwar, daughter of the Maharajah of Jodhpur Sardar Singh Ji. Second, in 1932 – at Maharani Kishore Kanwar. Both his wives also lived in the palace. He could marry Gayatri Devi only on May 9, 1940 (it must take eight years between different marriages).
The total area of the gardens nowadays is 42 acres (190,000 m2). A lot of tourists dream of coming to Rambagh Palace Jaipur and stay here at least over one night!
