Tajhat Palace - Majestic architectural masterpiece

The flamboyant and delightfully maintained Tajhat Palace is arguably one of the finest king houses in Bangladesh. Tajhat Palace (Tajhat Rajbari) is a historic palace of Bangladesh, located in Tajhat, Rangpur. This palace now holds the Rangpur museum. Tajhat Palace is situated three km. south-east of the city of Rangpur, on the outskirts of town.


The palace was constructed in the 19th century by Manna Lal Ray, a Hindu trader who was forced to emigrate from Punjab and found his way to Rangpur. The palace, with about 76 meters frontage, raises two storey's and faces east. An imposing broad staircase in the centre, paved with imported white marble, leads directly above the portico to the upper storey. The palace is crowned by a ribbed conical dome in the centre of the roof with a tall octagonal neck, partly supported on a series of slender semi-Corinthian columns.

The balustrade on either side of the imposing staircase was originally embellished with various sculptures of classical Roman figures in Italian marble, but now these are missing. There are two semi-octagonal projections at each end of the front face and a central projecting porch. The balcony roof above the porch is carried on four graceful Corinthian columns with round shafts, while two similar columns on each of the projecting ends of the building support a triangular gable.

There are a number of features of the palace that testify to the incredible wealth of the Lal Roy viceroy. Apart from the building's immense size, the wide stairs that climb to the second story on the front of the building are made of marble. Beautiful pictures can be found on doors and windows.