Vadodara

About Vadodara

Palaces, art schools and a garden city built by an enlightened maharaja give Vadodara, long known as Baroda, a character unlike any other city in Gujarat. Under Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III in the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Gaekwad capital gained public libraries, a museum, a university and grand Indo-Saracenic buildings that still define the skyline.

The great sight is Laxmi Vilas Palace, still home to the Gaekwad family, with its gardens and the Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum of paintings by Raja Ravi Varma. Sayaji Baug, the city's big park on the Vishwamitri river, holds the Baroda Museum and Picture Gallery, while Nyay Mandir, Kirti Mandir and the domed Arts Faculty of the Maharaja Sayajirao University show off the era's architecture.

Vadodara is known as the cultural capital of Gujarat, and its Navratri garba nights draw huge crowds in autumn. The city is also the base for the UNESCO-listed Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park and the Statue of Unity, both reachable on a day trip.