Not too far from the Raymond's Tomb is the Asman Garh Palace (Palace in the Sky) which was built in 1885 by Asman Jah of the Paigah family who served as the Prime Minister to the Hyderabad State. The palace is a small one but attractive enough because it had lovely views, being located on a high point (close to the sky). The Nizam liked staying over and the Paigah noble gave it to him - (as they did the Falaknuma Palace).
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| Part of the Aman Garh palace - the villa that stands |
The 7th Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan had an arched gateway built in the shape of the royal dastar (headgear) which still stands.
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| The dastar shaped arched gateway - and Mr Security doing his job |
The building was then used as a museum by the Birla Museum and then as an orphanage before being taken over by the St Joseph's Public School. There are rumours of there being a secret tunnel from this palace to Golconda which must be a long tunnel. One would think that there is a secret world of tunnels under this city.
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| View of the villa from the side |
Apparently declared as a heritage structure, a part of the building was demolished by the school to construct a new wing. Wonder what happened to the heritage status.
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| A view from afar - the school building visible through the gate |
When Vardha and I tried to go in, the sharp security man ran after us saying this far and no more. Then he had a problem with photographs. The old building looked good. The new school building of course must have served the school's purpose but fades in characters before the old villa.
Amazing what we do to our heritage structures.
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