Historical Chattar Manzil - once the palace of Awadh Nawobs

Chattar Manzil palace, Lucknow, UP.www.happytrips.com

Chattar Manzil palace, Lucknow, UP.lucknowobserver.com

 Like Delhi and Kolkata, the city of Lucknow has lots of monuments, in particular, built by the Muslim rulers of yore. They are grand in style with excellent impressive artistic work that can not be explained, but only to be seen to appreciate it. Such monuments throw light on the affluence of the rulers and their interest in constructing palatial buildings, mausoleums, gardens, etc., and the artistic talents of the artisans and workers of the past era. The Chattar Manzil in the heart of the city deserves mention and lots of tourists visit this massive building every day

The Chattar Manzil (or Umbrella Palace),  built by Nawob Saadat Ali Khan (1798-1814) and completed after his death by his successor, Nawab Nasir Uddin Haider is a palace building  in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. It mainly  served  as a royal palace for the kings of Awadh till Wajid Ali Shah shifted his residence to Qaiserbagh. The building  has two segments - a Bari (larger) Chattar Manzil and Chhoti (smaller) Chattar Manzil, however only the larger one still exists. It is a five storied  structure; two stories below ground level while the rest are above it. Standing on the banks of the Gomti river, these two buildings  show strong Indo-European-architectural style and design. The buildings have large underground rooms and a fine dome with gilt umbrella that glitters upon the fall of sun's rays on it. The palace has an excellent garden. An ingenious feature is the underground chambers have good air circulation because they are well connected with two octagonal towers located outside.

Inner chambers on either sides of the tunnel are being examined to make further discoveries. (Deepak Gupta/HT Photo ) http://www.hindustantimes.com

chattar manzil. Lucknow. mybusblog.mybustickets.in

In October, 2015 the conservationists from the  local Government Engineering college  accidentally discovered a 350 feet long tunnel and water way below the building. It connects the Chattar Manzil with the nearby Gomti river and it indicated a water route from the palace. the Nawobs used the water ways to travel back and forth and recently a stairway was discovered by the workers. The rulers used  the stairway to come down to get to the water way.

During the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, part of the palace was damaged by the British, as the ruler and his wife gave whole heated support to the rebellion. After the mutiny, the building was occupied by  an American NGO which used it as a club for recreation purposes. After independence,  the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,  a Central Drug Research Institute used it for several decades. The building needs restoration and the maintenance is adequate  enough to keep the building in good shape.

Ref:   

http://www.hindustantimes.com/lucknow/underground-tunnel-and-waterway-discovered-at-chattar-manzil/story-IKhg8beZbyIqZKnxhVm73N.html 

http://saveourheritage.in/chattar-manzil/