Place · palace-city ensemble · Nepal
Bhaktapur Durbar Square
The Newar palace-city at Bhaktapur Durbar Square in Bhaktapur district, Nepal, 13 kilometres east of Kathmandu — the former royal capital of the Malla kingdom (1428-1769) under the Bhaktapur Malla dynasty. The 55-Window Palace of King Bhupatindra Malla (ruled 1696-1722), the Nyatapola Temple (1702, a five-tier pagoda of Siddhi Lakshmi), the Vatsala Durga Temple, the Taleju Bell and the Golden Gate preserve the finest Newar palace architecture. The 1934 Nepal-Bihar earthquake destroyed several structures; the 2015 Nepal earthquake severely damaged many of the Newar temples (including the collapse of the Vatsala Durga temple and the Siddhi Lakshmi temple). The 2016-2022 restoration under UNESCO and the Nepal Department of Archaeology has rebuilt most structures using traditional Newar techniques. UNESCO 1979.
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Tradition
- Newar urban and architectural history
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 27.671, 85.429
Connections (2)
- Contemporary capital withKathmandu Durbar Square
Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan were three separate Malla kingdoms within ten kilometres of one another, competing by building: each square answers the others' temples, palaces and towers. Their rivalry is the reason the valley has three complete palace complexes instead of one, and their division is why Prithvi Narayan Shah was able to take all three between 1768 and 1769.
- PrecursorPanauti
Panauti's Indreshwar Mahadev has a thirteenth-century lowest storey and carved struts of the same date, which makes it generally the oldest surviving temple structure in Nepal — older than anything standing in the three Durbar squares. The town sits on a single rock outcrop, which is why it came through the 1934 and 2015 earthquakes far better than Bhaktapur did.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Bhaktapur Durbar Square”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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