Nahargarh Fort
| Quick Facts |
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| Location: |
Jaipur |
| Entrance Fee: |
N/A |
| Timing: |
10 am to 4 pm |
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Built mainly in 1734, the Nahargarh Fort lies North-West of City Palace and provides some stunning views of the city. A royal retreat for the Maharanis, it was also used as a personal treasury for many years.
Beyond the hills of Jaigarh, stands the fort of Nahargarh like a watchful sentinel guarding Sawai Jai Singh's beautiful capital. Much of the original structures are now in ruins, but the lovely buildings added by Sawai Ram Singh II and Sawai Madho Singh II in the 19th century are preserved in a good condition. Some of the rooms provide the most spectacular view of the city below.
The Nahargarh fort reigns the wide skyline during the day and frames a mesmerizing site when floodlit at night. Maharajah Sawai Madho Singh, always wanted to have a pleasure retreat, beside his popular duck shooting arena at Jal Mahal. So in 1880, he bade the eminent Bengali architect Vidyadhar Bhattacharya to design a magnificent monsoon haven for his nine maharanis, and today it stands- with its past legends and present glory- as a splendid example of love in the hearts of people. As the main attraction of the fort, the Madhavendra Bhawan, has a cluster of 12 identical double story suits for queens and at the acme is a regal suit for the king himself.
The species of the area, some of which dissipated over the years, have been reintroduced, so that today the park has Tiger, Leopard, Asiatic Lion (otherwise confined only to the Gir Forest sanctuary in Gujarat), Sloth Bear, Caracal, several species of Deer, Gharial, Crocodile and Otter in its wetlands, Pangolin Jackal, Wild Dog, Wolf, Hyena, Jungle Civet and Fishing Cats, Ratel, Common and Desert Fox, Wild Boar, Rhesus Monkey and Langur, and, of course, a host of avian species. |
