A 200-year-old palace hotel in Rajasthan rebuilt stone by stone at a new location makes for an almost surreal experience in Ranakpur.
Another Palace hotel in Rajasthan sounds about as exciting as another rose in the Mughal Gardens. But a 200 year-old palace that has been transported piece by piece from another location 50 km away? Even for been-there-done-that Rajasthan, that’s no small feat.
Situated at Ranakpur, not far from Udaipur, Fateh Bagh Hotel has a history as rich as the rest of the state. But certainly nothing about the palace is more unique that the fact that its owner, Jitendra Singh Rathore, a hotelier and scion of a royal Rajput Family, decided to move it, stone by stone, to a setting more suited to a heritage hotel. The magnitude of the task is awe-inspiring. The palace was originally located at Koshilav, a small village near Ranakpur. A team of 50 including a civil engineer were selected to carry out the relocation. It took local artisans two years to transport the 65,000 pieces of stone that make up the palace to a lakeside location at Ranakpur, famed for its beautiful Jain temples.
Today, it’s almost impossible to imagine that there was empty land where the structure now stands. The imposing 25,000 sq ft square shaped palace seems right at home in this picturesque town, its majestic domes and arches, pillars and pavilions, courtyards and gardens, fusing effortlessly into the landscape. The hotel itself offers every facility and experience Rajasthan’s hotels are famed for, and is now part of Shri Arvind Singh Mewar’s HRH Group of Hotels, Udaipur.
The four suites and 16 deluxe rooms are thematically designed, each unique. A sense of calm pervades, heightened by the emphasis on all things natural. So you have a special Spiritual Cuisine menu that offers food prepared from organic, healthy ingredients, special spaces designed for meditation; Vedic theme rooms, and a library well stocked with books including those on philosophy and spirituality. But luxury hasn’t been discarded in the process - the suites have private jacuzzis, vintage car rides can be arranged on request, massages and spa facilities are all on call.
The hotel’s architecture is arresting, and a huge draw in itself. Starting at the entrance and adorning doors, windows and walls are chattarpattas or floral motif crowns that the noblemen of yore were allowed to carve when they had achieved some great feat. Fateh Bagh had 65 of these, reflecting the most intricate carving. Then there is the main hall that faces the front garden and stands on 24 pillars and is embellished with 22 arches that is majestic in its scale and scope. Add to this the fact that every painting and fresco on the walls had first to have layers of colour removed, and then lovingly restored at the new location, and you have something quite out of the ordinary. A palace that creates history even as it celebrates its own.
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