Hill Fort Palace, also known as Ritz Hotel is a

royal palace This is a list of royal palaces, sorted by continent. Africa * Abdin Palace, Cairo * Al-Gawhara Palace, Cairo * Koubbeh Palace, Cairo * Tahra Palace, Cairo * Menelik Palace * Jubilee Palace * Guenete Leul Palace * Imperial Palace- Massa ...

located in ''Naubhat Pahad'',

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

Telangana Telangana (; , ) is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated on the south-central stretch of the Indian subcontinent, Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India b ...

. The property is now owned by

Government of Telangana The Government of Telangana also known as Telangana Government, is the governing authority of the state of Telangana in India. It consists of an executive, a judiciary and a legislative. The state government is headed by the Governor of Telan ...

, Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation

History

It was built in 1915 by

Nizamat Jung Nawab Sir Nizamat Jung Bahadur (April 1871 in Hyderabad State – 1955) was an Arab-Indian poet. Nizamuddin was the second son of the Late Nawab Rafath Yar Jung Bahadur (Moulvi Shaikh Ahmed Hussain), Subedar of Warangal, well known in his d ...

, who served as chief justice in the government of

Nizam The Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th through the 20th century. Nizam of Hyderabad (Niẓām ul-Mulk, also known as Asaf Jah) was the title of the monarch of the Hyderabad State ( divided between the state of Telangana, Mar ...

, India. His stay in the palace was for 15 years. The architecture is in style of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. In 1929, after he went on Haj he wanted to live a simpler life so it was purchased by

Asaf Jah VII Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII (5 or 6 April 1886 — 24 February 1967), was the last Nizam (ruler) of the Princely State of Hyderabad, the largest princely state in British India. He ascended the throne on 29 August 1911, at the age of ...

for his son Prince Moazzam Jah, and it was then designated as the official residence of the chairman of the City Improvement Board. In 1955, it was taken over by Indian government after

Operation Polo Operation Polo was the code name of the Hyderabad "police action" in September 1948, by the then newly independent Dominion of India against Hyderabad State. It was a military operation in which the Indian Armed Forces invaded the Nizam-rule ...

. It was leased to a star hotel, The Ritz Hotel Company on lease in the 1980. The hotel was operating till the late 1997. Today, it is dilapidated and in urgent need of restoration.

Location

The palace is located in the heart of the city near ''Naubat Pahad'' spread over 6

acres The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ya ...

External links

Narendra Luther's feature on the Palace

References

{{reflist Hyderabad State Heritage structures in Hyderabad, India Royal residences in India Palaces in Hyderabad, India Hotels in Hyderabad Houses completed in 1880 1880 establishments in India Palaces of Nizams of Hyderabad