Taj Falaknuma Palace

A horse-drawn carriage takes guests up the last stretch of the drive to Taj Falaknuma Palace, 2,000 feet above sea level on a hill over Hyderabad, and rose petals are scattered from the roof as they climb the steps. The ceremony is the Taj's invention, but the palace is real: a white marble house in the shape of a scorpion, built for a nobleman in the 1880s, bought by the Nizam of Hyderabad, and closed to the world for most of the 20th century.

History

Nawab Vikar-ul-Umra, prime minister of Hyderabad and head of the Paigah family, laid the foundation in 1884 and finished the palace in 1893. The cost exhausted him. In 1897 the sixth Nizam, Mahbub Ali Khan, came to stay, liked it enough to prolong his visit, and ended by taking it over, paying off its debts; it became the Nizams' guest house for visiting royalty, among them King George V and Queen Mary in 1911 and the last Tsar's cousin. After the seventh Nizam's death in 1967 the palace fell into decay. In 2000 the Taj group took a lease from the Nizam's heirs and began a restoration under the eye of Princess Esra, the former wife of the eighth Nizam, who had the original furniture, carpets and chandeliers repaired or remade. The hotel opened in November 2010.

Architecture and design

The English architect William Ward Marret designed the palace in an Italianate and Tudor manner, in white marble on a granite base, with a plan said to resemble a scorpion with its two stings spread as wings. The Durbar Hall has a parquet floor, a ceiling of carved walnut and chandeliers of Venetian glass; the marble staircase is lined with carved balustrades and portraits of the Nizams; the library is a copy of the one at Windsor Castle, with a walnut ceiling and a rare collection of Qurans. The dining hall holds the table for 101, 108 feet long, with the original Nizam-crested crockery. Jade, Italian marble, Victorian furniture and stained glass fill the state rooms.

Rooms and suites

The palace has 60 rooms and suites in the wings the Nizam's household once occupied, restored with four-poster beds, period furniture and bathrooms added in marble. The Grand Royal Suites and the Nizam Suite are the largest, with sitting rooms and terraces over the city; the Nizam Suite occupies rooms used by the family. Every guest has a butler.

Dining

Adaa serves Hyderabadi cuisine, the biryani and haleem of the Nizams' kitchens, in a room off the Durbar Hall. Celeste is the Western and Mediterranean restaurant with a terrace on the city side. The Gol Bungalow, a domed pavilion in the gardens, is used for dinners on request, and the Jade Room is a private dining room with a jade and gold collection. Guests can book the 101-seat table for private dinners, and the hotel sets tables on the terraces and lawns.

Wellness

Jiva, the Taj spa brand, runs the spa in the former zenana with Indian treatments, and the outdoor swimming pool sits on a terrace overlooking the old city and the Charminar. Guided heritage walks through the palace are given each evening.

Weddings and events

Falaknuma is one of the grandest wedding venues in India, used for the marriages of Hyderabad's business families and for guests from the Gulf and beyond. The lawns and terraces take receptions of several hundred, the Durbar Hall is used for ceremonies and dinners, and the Gol Bungalow and Jade Room serve smaller functions. Full buyouts are usual for weddings. Conferences and board meetings are rarer; the palace has a boardroom and the state rooms can be used for small meetings, but it is not a convention hotel.

Location

The palace stands on a hill at Engine Bowli in the Falaknuma district of old Hyderabad, five kilometres south of the Charminar, with the city and the Golconda hills in its view. Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad is about 20 kilometres south, 40 minutes by road, and Hyderabad Deccan (Nampally) railway station is 10 kilometres to the north. As a luxury hotel in Hyderabad it is a world apart from the business hotels of Banjara Hills and HITEC City, and that distance is the point.