
Cooch Behar Palace & Museum
- Location- Long: 88°10’25” E, Latitude: 24°01’15” N
- Locality-Cooch Behar
- Dis- Cooch Behar
- Gazette Notification No. S.O. 1367 dated the 20th March, 1982
Brief Description
Cooch Behar Palace, also called the Victor Jubilee Palace, is a landmark in Cooch Behar city, West Bengal. It was modeled after the Buckingham Palace in London in 1887, during the reign of Maharaja Nripendra Narayan of Koch dynasty. The Cooch Behar Palace is noted for its elegance and grandeur It is a brick-built double-story structure in the classical Western style covering an area of 51,309 square feet (4,766.8 m2). The whole structure is 395 feet (120 m) long and 296 feet (90 m) wide and is on rests 4 feet 9 inches (1.45 m) above the ground. At the southern and northern ends, the Palace projects slightly and in the center is a projected porch providing an entrance to the Durbar Hall. The Hall has an elegantly shaped metal dome, it is 124 feet (38 m) high from the ground and is in the style of the Renaissance architecture. There are various halls in the palace and rooms that include the Dressing Room, Bed Room, Drawing Room, Dining Hall, Billiard Hall, Library, Toshakhana, Ladies Gallery and Vestibules. The original palace was 3 storied, but was subsequently destroyed by the 1897 Assam earthquake. The palace shows the acceptance of European idealism of the cooch kings and the fact that they had embraced European culture. It was converted into museum in 2002 and the objects belong to the Koch dynasty were displayed in the museum. In present time, 08 nos. of galleries are opened where arms, billiards, oil painting, sculptures, and ritual objects etc. have been exhibited for the visitors.




