Shiv Niwas Palace is a former residence of the Maharana

Maharana

Maharana is a variation on the Indian royal title Maharaja, also meaning 'Great king' in Hindi. It is composed of Maha- 'great' and the royal title Rana, a variation on Raja.-Salute states :...

 of Udaipur, Rajasthan

Udaipur, Rajasthan

Udaipur , also known as the City of Lakes, is a city, a Municipal Council and the administrative headquarters of the Udaipur district in the state of Rajasthan in western India. It is located southwest of the state capital, Jaipur, west of Kota, and northeast from Ahmedabad...

, located on the banks of Lake Pichola

Lake Pichola

Lake Pichola, situated in Udaipur city in the Indian state of Rajasthan, is an artificial fresh water lake, created in the year 1362 AD, named after the nearby Picholi village. It is one of the several contiguous lakes, and developed over the last few centuries in and around the famous Udaipur city...

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Guesthouse

Located to the south side of and part of the City Palace complex, work on this building was begun by Maharana Sajjan Shambhu Singh (1874 to 1884) and finished by his successor Maharana Fateh Singh at the beginning of the 20th century as a royal guesthouse.

During its time as a guesthouse it hosted a number of royal gatherings and VIP visits from all over the world, including George V of the United Kingdom

George V of the United Kingdom

George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....

 in 1905, and Edward the Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

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By the time that Bhagwat Singh succeeded to the throne of Mewar

Mewar

Mewar is a region of south-central Rajasthan state in western India. It includes the present-day districts of Pratapgarh, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Udaipur, Dungarpur, Banswara and some of the part of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The region was for centuries a Rajput kingdom that later...

 in 1955, it was becoming increasing difficult for the royal family to afford the cost of maintaining the large numbers of royal residences that they owned, in particular the city palace. Following his success in converting the Lake Palace

Lake Palace

Lake Palace is a luxury hotel, of 83 rooms and suites featuring white marble walls, located on a natural foundation of rock on the Jag Niwas island in Lake Pichola, Udaipur, India....

 into an income generating hotel he decided to also convert the Shiv Niwas and the smaller Fateh Prakash Palace into luxury heritage hotel

Hotel

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...

s. After a 4 year long period of conversion the Shiv Niwas opened as a hotel in 1982.

Hotel

The 3 levels of the palace are arranged in a semicircular arc around an internal courtyard in the middle of which is a marble pool. Balconies and rooftop terraces opening off different rooms enjoy views to the south of the gardens laid below the dam wall of Lake Pichola; while to the west, the island resorts of Jag Mandir

Jag Mandir

Jag Mandir is a palace built on an island in the Lake Pichola. It is also called the "Lake Garden Palace". The palace is located in Udaipur city in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Its construction is credited to three Maharanas of the Sisodia Rajputs of Mewar kingdom...

 and the Lake Palace. The building is of ancient Rajput

Rajput

A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...

 architectural styles. The interior features ivory and mother-of-pearl inlay work, glass mosaic

Mosaic

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

s and fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es, many of them produced by Khaja Ustadh and Kundan Lal, whom the Maharana had sent to England to learn the art of glass-mosaic design and to study fresco painting.

When first built the palace had nine suites, all on the ground floor. During its conversion into a hotel, eight apartments were added in a new second story so that the hotel now has 36 guest rooms consisting of:

• 19 deluxe rooms
• 8 terrace suites
• 6 royal suites
• 3 imperial suites

Since its conversion into a hotel it has played host to, among others, Queen Elizabeth II, the King of Nepal, the Shah of Iran, and Jacqueline Kennedy.

The hotel is run by the HRH Group of Hotels, itself owned by the current Maharana.

The palace was featured in the James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 movie Octopussy

Octopussy

Octopussy is the thirteenth entry in the James Bond series, and the sixth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film's title is taken from a short story in Ian Fleming's 1966 short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights...

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