The City Palace located in Udaipur is one of the largest palaces in Rajasthan, this palace is much larger than it has taken any longer to construct. The size of the City Palace can be estimated from the length of this palace is 244 meters and the width is around 30 meters. In 1559, Maharana Udai Singh II laid down the construction of the City Palace.
City Palace was known as “Rai Aangan” during Maharana Uday Singh. To understand the construction of City Palace and the history of Udaipur, we have to know the history of Nagda, a small town 30 km from Udaipur. Before the establishment of Mewar by Bappa Rawal, around the sixth century, Nagda was ruled by the Guhil dynasty.
After some time Bappa Rawal also declared Nagda as the first capital of Mewar. After a long gap of about 800 years, Maharana Udai Singh II, disturbed by the constant Mughal invasions, established Udaipur in the region, surrounded by the Aravalli ranges on the banks of the Ayad river near Nagda and naturally protected.
According to some historians, before the construction of the City Palace, Maharana Udai Singh built Motimahal on a high peak near this place in 1553. A few years after the construction of Moti Mahal, he started the construction of the City Palace in 1559. After Maharana Udai Singh, his son Maharana Pratap came to power in Mewar.
Most of the time of Maharana Pratap’s life was spent in making Mewar independent at the hands of the Mughals. Before his death, Maharana Pratap had taken back most of the land of Mewar. All the kings of Sisodia dynasty who came to Udaipur after Maharana Udai Singh II continued their construction work in the City Palace in their own way.
Due to the ongoing construction works from time to time, today there are around 11 small and big palaces in the City Palace. The generations of kings of Sisodia dynasty continued to come and go and the construction work of the City Palace continued. Thus it took 400 years to complete the construction of City Palace with the help of 22 generations of the total Sisodia Rajput dynasty.