About

The Hazarduari Palace is located in the campus of Kila Nizamat in Murshidabad. It is situated near the eastern bank of river Bhagirathi, a distributory of Ganga. It was built in the nineteenth century by architect Colonel Duncan Macleod of the Bengal Corps of Engineers, under the reign of Nawab Nazim Humayun Jah of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.

The palace stands within a large open ground. It is a massive structure, largely rectangular in plan with its base being 127m x 62m, rising to a height of 27m. The primary entrance to the building is on the first floor, through a grand flight of 36 steps on the east. The building features 52 massive columns, 24 on the north, 20 on the south, and eight each on the west and east. The outside walls of the four corridors, and the tympanums on the north and south, feature the Coat of Arms and Unicorns in bold relief. Independent balconies with iron railings appear on the next higher storey.
The palace derives its name (Palace of a thousand doors) from the numerous doors in the palace, both outside and inside, of which 900 are true doors while there are 100 doors that are dummied.
The building is divided into three blocks - with corridors connecting the eastern and western wings to the central block, with open quadrangles between the blocks. There are more than fifty halls and rooms in the palace - including the billiards room, the ball room, library, drawing room, Banquet Hall, armory, record rooms, and more. The grand Durbar Hall is situated on the first floor and rises up to a domed ceiling 24.5m above the floor. A crystal chandelier with a brass frame and ninety-six lamps hangs from the center of the ceiling. The chandelier was gifted by Queen Victoria. Perforated screens just below the dome allow the womenfolk to observe the proceedings in the Durbar hall without being seen.
A large imambara stands on the northern side of the palace across the palace grounds. This imambara was constructed in 1847, shortly after the palace itself, during the reign of Nawab Feradun Jah. It was built in place of an earlier Imambara attributed to Siraj-ud-daula's times burnt down in a fire. It was designed by Sadiq Ali Khan, and was completed in 11 months. It has three large quadrangles, arranged east to west, with the central quadrangle having a large, single domed Madina in the center. The quadrangles are lined with two-storeyed dormitories. The overall design shows the influence of European architectural styles. The arched doorways boast of delicate floral patterns which is more reminiscent of Indo-Sarasenic style.
The palace grounds have a 15m tall clock tower and a domed Madina on a square platform which dates back to Siraj-ud-daula's time. Dirt from Karabala in Arabia was brought and placed in the Madina at the time of its construction.
There are a pair of mosques immediately to the west of the palace, on the banks of the Bhagirathi, which are named the Gold and Silver mosques, owing to the clour used for them. These mosques date back to the rule of Siraj-ud-daula in the 1750s.

Khushbagh is a walled garden with a mosque and an enclosure that holds the tombs of Alivardi Khan and Siraj-ud-daula. This walled compound has three significant structures arranged along an east-west axis. It is on the western (right) bank of the Bhagirathi river.
The first, as one enters from the east, is a walled enclosure that houses the graves of several members of the Nawab's family.
The second is a single-storeyed chamber that is about 20m x 20m. This chamber has nine arched bays along its eastern and western faces, the central five of which form an open verandah, with the outer four having dummied louvre windows. This chamber houses the tombs of Alivardi Khan (placed in the center of the structure) and those of Siraj-ud-daula (to the east of Alivardi Khan's grave) and Lutf-un-nisa, Siraj's loyal wife, placed at the foot of her husband's grave.
The third structure is a mosque with three domes topped by finials. The arched bays of the mosque feature geometric designs and niches by way of ornamentation. The central bay projects slightly higher than the two adjacent ones, and has two minarets on top. There are four taller minarets at the four corners of the mosque, fused into the walls of the mosque itself.

The Katra Mosque was built by Murshid Quli Khan in 1723 CE. The mosque is made of terra cotta bricks, like many other structures in the region. The doorways leading to the interior of the mosque are made of stone. The mosque is situated within a two-storeyed walled enclosure with cells and domed roofs. It is the oldest and most imposing Islamic structure in Murshidabad.
The mosque originally had five domes, of which the central three have collapsed. There are fifteen plain bays on the western wall of the mosque, three under each of the domes. The central mihrab has an inscription above it.
Murshid Quli Khan is buried under the stairs leading up to the courtyard on the east.
There were four massive minar-like buttresses at the four corners of the compound, rising to a height of about 20m. Only the towers on the north-west and south-west corners survive.
The open courtyard in front of the mosque is an elevated one and can seat 1000 worshippers at a time, with ja-namazis (prayer mats) marked on the floor. It is said that each prayer mat has a distinct pattern, with no two being the same. It is surrounded by double-storeyed cells, one on the courtyard level, and one below it.

The Chowk Masjid was built by Mir Jafar's wife, Munni Begum, in a style reminiscent of Mughal Architecture and was completed in 1767.

Other interesting structures in the town include the Katgola Palace which was built in 1870 to allow the Hindu aristocracy to host Europeans and Nawabs without having to invite them into their houses, Jagat Seth's House where the family of the principal banker in Bengal province resided, Wasif Manzil built by Wasif Ali Mirza in 1904, Nashipur Rajbari the home of the dacoit king, Devi Singh.

Architecture

The palace is largely made of bricks, rubble, and lime mortar. Marble flooring has been used extensively in the palace, especially in the Durbar Hall.

Timber has been used for beams of the roofs.