Mysuru and Umaid Bhawan Palaces ranked amongst the world’s most loved

Mysuru Palace in Mysuru and Umaid Bhawan Palace at Jodhpur have been ranked among the most loved Royal palaces in world. They ranked 20 of the most well-known royal palaces, or former royal palaces, on four criteria to determine which is the most loved by the public. The criteria judged were: average TripAdvisor rating, global monthly searches, hashtags on Instagram, and pins on Pinterest. Each criteria was marked out of a maximum of 25 points to create a total score out of 100.

The results are as follows: 

The best palaces in India… 

Mysuru Palace: 

Placing 10th in the worldwide rankings with a total of 57 out of 100 points is Mysuru (Mysore) Palace. The palace scored highly for its global monthly searches, but was let down by its TripAdvisor rating and pins on Pinterest.

Mysuru Palace was established as part of a wooden fortress, by the royal family of Mysuru, the Wodeyars, as early as the fourteenth century. The current Mysuru Palace – the fourth to occupy this site – was designed by the British architect Henry Irwin after its predecessor was destroyed in a fire in 1897. The imposing building that stands today was completed in 1912.

Designed by the English Architect, Henry Irwin, the Mysuru Palace dominates the skyline of Mysuru. A three storied structure in the Indo-Saracenic style built between 1897-1912, the palace has beautifully designed square towers at cardinal points, covered with domes. The Durbar Hall with its ornate ceiling and sculpted pillars and the Kalyanamantapa (Marriage Pavilion) with its glazed tiled flooring and stained glass, domed ceiling are worth noting. Intricately carved doors, the golden howdah (elephant seat), paintings as well as the fabulous, jewel encrusted golden throne (displayed during Dasara) are amongst the palace’s other treasures.

The walled palace complex houses the Residential Museum (incorporating some of the Palace’s living quarters),temples and shrines including the Shwetha Varahaswamy temple. The palace is illuminated on Sundays, Public Holidays as well as during the Dasara Celebrations when 97,000 electric bulbs are used to illuminate it.

Umaid Bhawan Palace: 

Placing 16th in the worldwide rankings with a total of 49 out of 100 points is Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur. The palace claims the highest TripAdvisor rating, but was let down by Instagram hashtags and pins on Pinterest.

Built between 1928 and 1943, Umaid Bhawan Palace is a magnificent piece of Rajasthan’s heritage, and a symbol of new Jodhpur. Home of the erstwhile Jodhpur royal family and currently the world’s sixth-largest private residence, the palace has one thing in common with the iconic Taj Mahal at Agra—the palm court marble used in its construction. Perched on Chittar Hill, the highest point in Jodhpur, Umaid Bhawan Palace inspires with exotic views of the historical Blue City, vast sand dunes, and intimidating Mehrangarh Fort.

The top three palaces in the world… 

1.       Buckingham Palace: 

Ranking in first place with a total of 80 out of 100 points is Buckingham Palace. The royal palace had the most monthly global searches and the most hashtags on Instagram, bagging it a full 25 points in those categories. 

2.       Neuschwanstein Palace: 

Not far behind, ranking second with 78 out of 100 points, is Germany’s Neuschwanstein Palace. It’s not hard to see why this palace ranked well for Instagram and Pinterest as it was the inspiration for  Disney’s iconic castle. 

3.       Winter Palace: 

In third place, with 69 points, is the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. The huge palace received a full 25 points for Pinterest, as well as one of the highest ratings on TripAdvisor. 

Methodology:

–Homedit.com created a list of the top 20 royal palaces, including those that were former royal palaces, around the world using multiple sources including: therichest.com and wanderlust.co.uk

–For each palace, they found the average TripAdvisor rating, global monthly Google search volumes, number of Instagram hashtags and number of pins on Pinterest

–To obtain the average TripAdvisor rating, Homedit.com used all ratings for each palace on TripAdvisor, and assigned a five-star review five points, a one-star review one point, and so on to obtain an average rating out of five stars

–A manual inspection of pins on Pinterest and hashtags on Instagram was carried out to exclude pins and hashtags that were not relevant to each palace. The two most popular Google searches for each palace were used to standardise the data.

–Homedit.com then created an index where each palace could score up to 25 points in each category, making the total out of 100 points to crown the best royal palace to visit.