Place · Nizam's hilltop palace · India
Falaknuma Palace, Hyderabad
Also known as Falaknuma, Falaknuma Palace, Taj Falaknuma
A palace on a 610-metre hill above Hyderabad, built by Nawab Vikar-ul-Umra of the Paigah family in European Palladian style between 1884 and 1894, and bought by Nizam Mahbub Ali Khan when he visited and could not stop talking about it. Chandeliers from Osler of Birmingham, a Jacob dining table seating 101, parquet floors from Burma teak, and a library with hand-carved walnut cases copied from the Windsor Castle library — the apogee of late-Nizami taste. Converted into a Taj hotel in 2010.
- Date
- 1884–1894
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Paigah · Asaf Jahi
- Tradition
- Asaf Jahi and Paigah family records; Taj Hotels conservation documentation; INTACH Hyderabad chapter.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 17.333, 78.468
Worth knowing
The palace is scorpion-shaped in plan if seen from the air, with its central hall at the body and its wings curving out. Mir Osman Ali Khan preferred it to Chowmahalla and often held court here. Queen Elizabeth stayed as a guest in 1961 on a state visit.
Connections (1)
- Site withinHyderabad
The Falaknuma Palace is the Paigah-and-Nizam hilltop palace on a 610-metre ridge above Hyderabad, built in European Palladian style between 1884 and 1894 and bought by Nizam Mahbub Ali Khan when he visited and did not stop talking about it. Mir Osman Ali Khan — briefly the richest man in the world in the 1930s — preferred it to Chowmahalla and often held court here. It overlooks the old city and the Charminar from the south.