Bir Singh Palace Datia

Bir Singh Palace, also known as Datia Palace or Govind Mahal, was built by Raja Bir Singh Deo of Orchha between 1614 and 1623 at a reported cost of 35 lakh rupees, intended to welcome his ally, the Mughal emperor Jahangir. Neither Jahangir nor Bir Singh Deo himself is recorded as ever having stayed in the completed palace, and the building remains largely unoccupied to this day.

Built entirely of stone and brick on a square, swastika-influenced plan roughly 80 metres across and 40 metres tall, the seven-storeyed palace is reinforced at its corners by four octagonal towers and marked by string courses of stone lattice work across its five main levels. Its summit carries numerous chhatris crowned with ribbed domes, while interiors include finely carved ceilings and facades decorated with bracketed balconies, kiosks, arcades and wide eaves. The palace is regarded as one of the finest surviving examples of Bundela architecture, fusing Rajput and Mughal decorative elements.