Last Updated:
Spread across 500 acres, filled with priceless art, a golf course and royal history, Vadodara’s Laxmi Vilas Palace remains one of the world’s largest private residences.
News18
Most palaces eventually become museums.
Some become luxury hotels.
But in Gujarat’s Vadodara, one of India’s grandest royal residences is still what it was built to be more than a century ago: a family home.
Laxmi Vilas Palace, built in 1890 by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, sprawls across a 500-acre estate and is often described as being four times the size of Buckingham Palace. Even today, members of the Gaekwad royal family continue to live there, making it one of the few great princely residences in India that remains an active royal home.
When Sayajirao Gaekwad III commissioned the palace in the late 19th century, he was not simply building a residence. He was making a statement.
The ruler of Baroda State was known as one of the most progressive princes of his era, introducing educational and social reforms while transforming his state into one of the most modern princely territories in India.
To match those ambitions, he commissioned British architect Major Charles Mant to design a palace unlike anything India had seen before. After Mant’s death, architect Robert Chisholm completed the project, creating a vast Indo-Saracenic masterpiece that blended Indian, Islamic and European influences.
The estate functions almost like a small town.
Beyond the main palace building are sprawling gardens, a golf course, the Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum, the historic Navlakhi stepwell, the Moti Baug Cricket Ground and several other heritage structures. Gujarat Tourism describes it as the largest private home built to date.
Inside, visitors encounter Venetian mosaic floors, Belgian stained-glass windows, grand chandeliers and elaborate Darbar Halls designed for royal ceremonies. The palace also houses collections of arms, sculptures and paintings, including works associated with celebrated Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma.
One of the lesser-known facts about Laxmi Vilas Palace is how technologically advanced it was when it was built.
Historical accounts note that it incorporated many modern conveniences unusual for the period, including elevators and other amenities more commonly associated with wealthy European residences of the era.
That blend of traditional Indian craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology reflected Sayajirao Gaekwad’s broader vision of modernising his state.
India has no shortage of spectacular palaces. Yet Laxmi Vilas Palace continues to stand out because it combines three things rarely found together.
It is enormous, it remains privately owned, and it is still lived in.
While many royal residences have become heritage hotels or government-managed monuments, the palace remains connected to the family that built it. That living link gives visitors a glimpse not just of royal architecture but of a tradition that has survived colonial rule, independence and more than a century of change.
Read More
