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Samode Palace
Samode, Rajasthan, India · Samode · Grand Luxury
A 16th-century Nathawat Rajput fort about 40 km north of Jaipur, Samode Palace was recast as a palace in the early 1800s by Rawal Berisal, then given its painted Durbar Hall and mirrored Sheesh Mahal by Rawal Sheo Singh. Brothers Yadavendra and Raghavendra Singh opened 43 rooms to guests in 1987, still family-run as Samode Hotels. HBO filmed The Far Pavilions here in 1984; ITV's Beecham House followed in 2019.
- 43 rooms
- Opened 1987
About Samode Palace
- Built as a Rajput fort around 1545 to protect the ruling Nathawat family of Samode in the Aravalli hills.
- Rawal Berisal converted the fort into a fused Rajput-Mughal palace in the early 19th century.
- Rawal Sheo Singh later added the hand-painted Durbar Hall and the mirrored Sheesh Mahal.
- Inherited in the 1980s by brothers Yadavendra and Raghavendra Singh, who opened it as a 43-room heritage hotel in 1987.
- Film location for HBO's The Far Pavilions (1984) and ITV's Beecham House (2019).
History
Samode Palace began as a 16th-century Nathawat Rajput fort in the Aravalli hills about 40 kilometres north of Jaipur, traditionally dated around 1545, a feudatory seat of Amber and later Jaipur. The town had already been granted to Gopal Singhji, a son of Maharaja Rajveer Singhji of the Kachwaha house. In 1757 the Nathawat clan had the hereditary title Rawal restored under British-period arrangements. In the early 1800s Rawal Berisal recast the fort as a palace in fused Rajput and Mughal style. He served as chief minister and, in 1818, signed Jaipur's protectorate treaty with the East India Company on the maharaja's behalf.
Mid-century, Rawal Sheo Singh, also a Jaipur prime minister, added the painted Durbar Hall with its gallery and the Sheesh Mahal, the hall of mirrors. Frescoes in the Durbar Hall and Sultan Mahal are locally dated to about 250 years. The palace rises through three courtyard levels of sandstone, marble, and mosaic, with a ruined fort above linked by tradition to an emergency tunnel. Sheo Singh also built Samode Haveli in Jaipur as a town residence; a separate Mughal-style bagh was laid out some four kilometres from the palace.
Brothers Yadavendra and Raghavendra Singh inherited the house and opened it in 1987 as the Samode Palace Hotel, still family-run, with 43 rooms. HBO filmed The Far Pavilions here in 1984, before the hotel conversion; ITV's Beecham House followed in 2019.
The setting
13 km from Sunrise Health Resort.
Amenities
- Spa
- Infinity pool
- Hot tub
Open Samode Palace in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.