Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace

Tipu Sultan's Summer Palace stands in the old fort area of Bengaluru, off Albert Victor Road in Chamarajpet, Karnataka, India. Begun under Hyder Ali and finished in 1791 in the reign of his son Tipu Sultan, the two-storey building served as a summer residence and audience space for the Mysore Sultanate rulers. It is a fine surviving example of Indo-Islamic timber architecture of the late eighteenth century. The structure is built largely of teak on a stone base, with slender pillars, scalloped arches, projecting balconies and a carved wooden canopy over the upper-level durbar area. The walls and ceilings carry floral and arabesque decoration in muted colours, reconstructed in part from surviving traces. After the fall of Srirangapatna in 1799 the palace passed into British hands and was later used for government offices. The Archaeological Survey of India now maintains it as a protected monument and operates a small museum on the upper floor, presenting the history of the Mysore Sultanate through display panels, maps, portraits and reproductions relating to Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan. The approach is chronological and interpretive rather than object-heavy, and visitors should not expect a large original collection. Conservation work by the ASI has repaired the timber, restored decorative painting and laid out a garden and forecourt, though the wood remains fragile and some upper areas can be restricted. The palace is set among traffic and buildings that have grown up around the former fort; the adjacent Kote Venkataramana Temple and the surviving Delhi Gate of Bengaluru Fort can be visited on the same trip. Photography is generally allowed for personal use, and the compact scale means a full visit rarely exceeds an hour.