Bangalore Palace

One Sunday morning, I decided to become a tourist in my own city Bangalore as I had nothing else to do - literally! I have been living in Bangalore for 6 years now. Even though I have gone to many malls and restaurants, I did not really explore my city in a touristy way.

As I was bored to the core  yesterday and all my friends were busy, I decided to explore the city on my own.

So My first place on the list was Bangalore Palace. You can reach Bangalore Palace by UBER or OLA or by bus. I purchased a 150 rupees one day ac bus pass and decided to go there.Usually I get chauffeured around by my husband or relatives, since that was not possible Yesterday, I took a bus instead of a cab.

Bus dropped me at Majestic stand, from there you need to take another bus to Palace grounds(Mekhri circle.) Even if you get down at Mekhri circle, you have to walk around 2 km to reach your destination. If you see SBI Vasanth nagar branch, you are on the right road. I refused to take an auto from Mekhri circle and decided to walk.

There are numerous wedding tents in the Palace grounds. Hey who doesn't want to get married on Palace Grounds in a royal way? This is a famous destination for local Bangalore weddings.

It is better to take UBER or OLA once you reach Majestic as it directly drops you in front of the Palace Entrance.

Entry fee is 240Rs for Indians and 450 Rs for Foreigners. Mobile camera fee is another 300 Rs(It is a rip off) and camera is 100 Rs extra.They give you an audio guide free for the length of the tour which is a good thing. Take a Government ID card with you, they ask for it. It takes a total time of 45 minutes or less for the whole tour. Nothing much to see if you ask me.

I could find some English white people, Chinese/SEA People and some Indians. I have visited better maintained Palaces abroad which charge very less entry fee and almost nothing for the camera. So they have not maintained the palace and there is not many valuables to see for the entry fee they are charging. In fact I would say they do not know how to maintain a Palace for an exhibition.


The Palace was built in 1874 in Tudor style architecture. It was built for the King Jayachamaraja Wadiyar as a place to stay during his training in Bangalore.

                                                          The entrance  roof inside

The first place you enter into is a ball room where the Kings of Mysore entertained guests with whom they were in trade with. These guests included mainly the Kings from Europe Asia and many from the British raj.  A pic of ball room I took is given below.

               After the ball room, you go up through a spiral stairway. Here is the spiral stairway:

There you find the first lift ever installed in Bangalore, at least that is what the audio guide says.

Then there is this Darbar hall where the king used to address his assembly. They have removed the old chairs and King's throne from here.The glass windows here are in Gothic style.

Then you are on your way to the king's quarters.  You find many old pics on the wall (mainly of old Kings and festivals like Dusshera - a Hindu festival celebrated in honor of Goddess Kali). The interior of the walls of the Palace are adorned by old paintings of the mid 19th century including some Greek and Dutch paintings. But these are all copies of the original work. Some Paintings of Raja Ravi Verma are also exhibited here. I have taken pics of almost all the paintings on the walls, but I have not posted anything here.
                                                                  The King's Quarters :

                 After this off you go to Queens Quarters. You need to go down through a staircase.

                                      
                                            Here comes the Queens Quarters pics. I liked it.

                                               

                                                Then you go to the King's office.

                                        The stairway to king's quarters from King's office.

                 Just guessing this must be the King's throne, no description was written there

This is the press room where they processed the information and photos about India to be published in London times.

                     From the press room, you directly step outside the Palace to where you started.

                                          The overview of garden from the Palace.

                                Outdoor chairs n tables in the Garden(Not much of garden now)

                                                              The Palace 

 The whole thing took only about 40-45 minutes. So that was about my Bangalore Palace visit. I then booked ola and went to my next destination :)

There is also an amusement park called Fun World situated in the Palace Grounds complex, if you are up to it, you can visit there as well.

The Palace grounds have been a venue for major music band performances like Iron Maiden, Aerosmith, Backstreet Boys, Don Moen, David Guetta, Elton John, Deep Purple, Textures, Amon Amarth, Lamb of God, Mark Knopfler, Akon, The Black Eyed Peas, The Rolling Stones, Metallica, Michael Learns to Rock, Roger Waters, Guns N' Roses, The Prodigy, No Doubt, Sepultura, Scorpions, Enrique Iglesias, Machine Head, Cradle of Filth.

But The Government stopped giving permission for music bands after Metallica's 2011 performance.

It is advisable to take a bottle of water and some energy bars with you , just in case if you feel hungry and need something to munch on.

All the photographs are taken by me and I own the copyrights for these images.