FROM the striking mustard-yellow walls of the Palácio da Pena in Portugal to the sacred stepped walls of the Potala Palace in Tibet, royal palaces around the world are masterpieces of a country’s built heritage. But there’s something altogether especially captivating about those residences that have withstood the test of time to remain homes or governing spaces for working members of royal families and their households even today. Those presented here are among the most splendid and bustling of all.
Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand
More than a palace, this is a complex in the heart of Bangkok that has been the official residence of the kings of Siam since 1782. Work on it began when the capital city was moved across the Chao Phraya river from Thonburi to Bangkok after the execution of late-18th-century King Taksin, a brilliant strategist who had become mentally unstable, and the accession to the throne of Rama I, Taksin’s former military commander, who founded the current dynasty. Other buildings were added throughout successive reigns until the palace reached more than two million square feet in size, covering 233 acres of grounds.
Home of the king, his court and the government until 1925, today, it is used for official events and state functions. It’s partially open to the public—visitors are allowed into the grounds and some buildings—and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Thailand, as well as a pilgrimage destination for devout Buddhists. One of the most spectacular elements is the Chapel of the Emerald Buddha, a gilded structure decorated with glass mosaics. It houses a medieval meditating Buddha, carved from a block of green jasper and swathed in gold—its costumes are changed three times a year to reflect the seasons.
Denne historien er fra October 13, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra October 13, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
