Lake Palace

Lake Palace is a luxury hotel, which has 83 rooms and suites featuring white marble walls. The Lake Palace is located on the island of Jag Niwas in Lake Pichola, Udaipur, India, and its natural foundation spans 4acre. The hotel operates a speed boat which transports guests to the hotel from a jetty at the City Palace.HistoryThe Lake Palace was built between 1743 and 1746 under the direction of the Maharana Jagat Singh II of Udaipur, Rajasthan as a winter palace. It was initially called Jagniwas or Jan Niwas after its founder.The palace was constructed facing east, allowing its inhabitants to pray to Surya, the Hindu sun god, at the crack of dawn. The successive rulers used this palace as their summer resort, holding their regal durbars in its courtyards lined with columns, pillared terraces, fountains and gardens.The walls made of black and white marbles are adorned by semi-precious stones and ornamented niches. Gardens, fountains, pillared terraces and columns line its courtyards.The upper room is a perfect circle and is about 21ft in diameter. Its floor is inlaid with black and white marble, the walls are ornamented with niches and decorated with arabesques of colored stones, the dome is exquisitely beautiful in form.During the famous Indian Sepoy Mutiny in 1857 several European families fled from Nimach and used the island as an asylum, offered to them by Maharana Swaroop Singh. To protect his guests, the Rana destroyed all the town’s boats so that the rebels could not reach the island.