MYSORE
India's second-largest palace, now a heritage hotel — you can't tour the interior without a meal reservation or room booking, so this is really a photo-from-the-gate stop unless you're eating there
Commissioned by Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, with its foundation stone laid on 18 November 1921, Lalitha Mahal was built primarily to host the Viceroy and Governor-General of India during state visits, and later served as a guesthouse for the Maharaja's European guests. Designed by architect E.W. Fritchley over roughly nine years to completion in 1930-31 at a cost of about Rs 13 lakh, its design draws on St. Paul's Cathedral in London combined with Italian palazzo and English manor influences. It was converted into a heritage hotel in the 1970s and remains the second-largest palace in Mysore after the Amba Vilas Palace.
