Hazarduari Palace

 museum, place with historical importance

‘Hazarduari Palace’ Museum is located in the Hazarduari Palace in Murshidabad, former capital of Bengal on the banh of river Baghirathi. Murshidabad is at a distance of 219 kms from Kolkata by road. It was built during the reign of Nawab Nazim Humayun Jah (1824 – 1838 AD) by famous architect McLeod Duncan following Greek (Doric) style. The name of the palace owes to more than thousand doors, vast corridors in it. The enclosure within which it is situated is known as Nizabat Kila. It contains in addition to the Palace, the Imambara, the Madina Mosque, a Clock Tower, three Mosques and residential and other quarters. It is entered by several large gates bearing different names, such as Dakshin Darwaza, Chawk and Imambara.

The Palace is a three storied building rectangular on plan (424 feet long 200 feet broad and 80 feet height). The building is an excellent example of Indo-European architecture reminiscent of Italian style, as seen from huge flight of stairs in front (perhaps the largest in India), in the colossal pillars and also in the facet of the building.
The palace was used as ‘Durbar’ or meeting or other official works of the Nawabs as also for the residents of high ranking British Officials. It is now a Museum displaying the collections of Nawabs consisting of extremely rich collection of antiquarian remains which include arms and weapon, painting of Dutch, Flemish, French, English and Italian artists, bronze and stucco statues, costumes and jewelry, objects of gold, silver and ivory cut-glass chandelier, farmans, rare books, old maps, manuscripts, land revenue records, palanquin belonging mostly to the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

In 1985, the palace was handed over to the Archaeological Survey of India for preservation. The museum is regarded as the biggest site museum of Archaeological Survey of India and has got 20 displayed galleries containing 4742 antiquities out of which 1034 has been displayed for the public.