Place · Nizam's palace · India
Chowmahalla Palace, Hyderabad
Also known as Chowmahalla, Chawmahalla, Chaumahalla, Khilwat Mubarak
The Asaf Jahi Nizams' principal palace in Hyderabad, four palaces around a central courtyard and a durbar hall whose chandeliers were lit from a Belgian system — built in stages from Nizam Salabat Jung in 1750 onward, with the Khilwat Mubarak durbar hall completed by Afzal ad-Dawlah in the 1850s and the ceremonial throne room from Mir Mahbub Ali Khan. The seat of Nizami court ceremony and the official reception of visitors to the state until 1911, when the Nizam moved his residence to King Kothi.
- Date
- 1750–None
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Asaf Jahi
- Tradition
- Asaf Jahi court records; Chowmahalla Palace Trust publications; UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation 2010.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 17.358, 78.472
Worth knowing
The nineteenth-century durbar hall's clock, called the Khilwat Clock, has been running continuously since the mid-1800s and is wound by a family of clock-keepers whose service descended father to son. The complex was in private hands until the 2000s and was opened to the public after a conservation project that won an UNESCO Asia-Pacific award.
Connections (1)
- Site withinHyderabad
The Chowmahalla Palace is the Nizams' principal palace in Hyderabad from 1750, in the Afzal Gunj area just south of the Charminar. It was the official reception room of the Hyderabad state — every treaty with the Company and every ceremonial audience with foreign visitors took place in its Khilwat Mubarak durbar hall — until 1911, when the Nizam moved his residence out of it to King Kothi. The 2010 UNESCO Asia-Pacific award for its conservation is one of the hallmarks of Hyderabad's heritage politics.