Falaknuma Palace:Mirror of the Sky

Falaknuma Palace is also known as the ’mirror of the sky‘ because it was built in the clouds at the height of 2000 feet from the sea level of city of Hyderabad and echoes the ever-changing nature of the sky. It has been conceived and designed in the total area of thirty two acres of land and the Palace edifice was constructed in an area of 19400 square meters and was made to order by Sir Nawab Vikar-Ul- Umra, an aristocrat from the Paigah family of the state of Hyderabad.

It grabbed the attention of the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, Mahbub Ali Pasha and he got fascinated and obsessed by the opulence of the Palace that Sir Vicar;

who also happened to be the brother –in-law and the prime minister of the Nizam; was not left with any other option except to hand over the ownership of the Palace to Nizam as a gift or `nazar’.

It was built in the year 1894, and took a period of ten years and four million rupees to create this magnificent citadel of the shape of a scorpion. This Palace was designed by the British architect William Mard Marret and took nearly 22 years to attain the final shape and owned in turn by Sir Vicar-Ul-Umra, PM of the State of Hyderabad, Nizam Mahboob Ali Pasha and Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur respectively.

The Palace was being used as the residence of Nizam till the year 1911, and later went on to become the guesthouse for royal dignitaries, who were actually the only entitled persons to avail of its eminent and sumptuous hospitality. The reverberation of the visiting European monarchs, the Duke of Windsor, heads of state and distinguished governors can still be heard or felt in this recently renovated interior sanctum of the Palace.

In the year 1995, The Taj Group of Hotels has acquired the property on leasehold from the family of Nizam to restore the grandeur of the palace not only for the purpose of lodging the privileged guests in the sixty well appointed & alluring rooms and suites, but also to accommodate the profligacy of the bye gone royal era with all the modern and contemporary comfort of the present times.