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TOURIST PLACES
Thirumalai Nayak Mahal

This Palace was built in 1636 by king Thirumalai Nayak with the help of an Italin Architect. The building we see today was once the main palace, where king Thirumalai nayak lived. The orginal palace complex was four times bigger than the present structure. This palace consisted mainly of two parts. namely Kswaragavilasa and Rangavilasa.
In these two parts. there were royal residences theatre, shrine, apartments armory, palanquin place, royal bandstand quarters pond garden etc. King Thirumalai Nayak celebrated festivels like Scepture Festival, Navarathiri Chitirai Festival, masi festivel, float festivel etc., Music and dance performances were conducted daily in the palace. This palace was destroyed by his grandson chockanatha Nayak later on and the valuable properties were transferred to other place.
During the British rule in 1882 Lord Napuer made several renovation works. Then the palace was utilised to house some official duties of judiciary and district administration. Later on this palace was declared as a monument and maintenance rests with the Tamilnadu Archeological Department. During day time it can be visisted from 9 am to 5 pm and Re.1 charged per person as entry fee. In 1981 the Tamilnadu Government Started sound and light show programme about history of King Thirumalai Nayak with additional scenes from the tamil epic silappathikaram. Now this show is taken over by Tamilnadu tourism department. Daily two shows are conducted.
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