Vadodara

Vadodara — Baroda under the British — was the capital of the most culturally ambitious of the Gaekwad Maratha rulers, and the Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III transformed it between 1881 and 1939 into one of the best-governed principalities in India.

The Laxmi Vilas Palace, built in 1890, is the largest private residential building constructed during the British Raj — four times the size of Buckingham Palace. The Durbar Hall is lined with mosaics by Italian craftsmen; the trophy room contains hunting trophies from safaris conducted by a ruler who also had his own electric tram system. The palace is still the residence of the Gaekwad family, and the accessible portions are managed with the combination of genuine pride and slight awkwardness that characterises lived-in palaces.

The Baroda Museum and Picture Gallery, founded in 1894 by Sayajirao III, is the most encyclopedic provincial museum in India: 45,000 objects, including Egyptian mummies that Sayajirao collected on a tour of Europe, European Old Masters, Mughal miniatures, and the finest collection of South and Southeast Asian bronzes in any non-metropolitan Indian museum — the collecting policy genuinely international rather than merely imperial.

Places to Visit in Vadodara

• Laxmi Vilas Palace
• Champaner-Pavagadh
• Sayaji Garden
• Vadodara Museum

Things to Do in Vadodara

• Palace architecture tour
• Champaner-Pavagadh heritage site visit
• Local Gujarati thali dining