TAJHAT PALACE

The greatness of this palace contrasts a little in its surroundings. Imagine 76 m of white facade that stands out from the rase countryside of Bangladesh traveled from plots of rice rice. You have before you the Tajhat, a European style palace built at the beginning of the th century by Kumar Gopal Lal Roy. Descended from a rich Hindu merchant from Punjab, Zamindar Kumar Gopal made fortune in jewellery. He was built a palace up to his ego: marble and statues of the staircase from Italy (the statues have now disappeared), windows engraved with its crest and plan inspired by Ahsan Manzil in Dhaka. His heirs fled to India at the time of partition of India in 1947 and the palace fell into désuétude. The government established the High Court of Justice in Rangpur between 1984 and 1991. Protected since 1995 by the Department of Archaeology, the Rangpur Museum was transferred to the Museum in 2005. The Tajhat is still one of the most beautiful rajbaris from all over Bangladesh.

Architecture: The palace rises on two floors travelled from galleries punctuated by openings in circle. At each end, two semi-octagonal turrets stand out from the façade and a majestic marble staircase connects to the sublime porch on the 2nd ^{floor. The balustrade that runs along the 2nd floor was once decorated with classical statues from Italy. The porch is supported by four terrazzo columns, while similar columns support the gâble of the turrets. The palace was constructed in shape of U, presentation east-west. Inside, on the ground floor, the entrance hall measuring 234 m ², while a 3 m wide corridor over the entire width of the building. The palace comprises 22 different apartments.}

The Museum: Set on the 2nd ^{floor of the palace since 2005, the museum has a beautiful collection of terracotta objects dating from the th and th centuries. It also exhibits valuable manuscripts in Sanskrit and Arabic, including the epic narratives of the Mahabharata and Du and an Koran that would have belonged to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The rooms on the back of the building display black stone statues of Hindu deities, including some beautiful sculptures depicting Vishnu.}