The City Palace was built by various Maharajahs of Jaipur fro the 16C on as they moved the court from Amber to the city. It is still inhabited by the royal family although the current Maharajah is mostly at boarding school having been the son of the previous Maharajah's daughter and adopted by him to ensure the succession; his grandfather died in 2011 and he is only 15.
Jah Singh the first Maharajah to build here was something of a prodigy having mastered 17 languages befroe coming to the throne before he was 20. He was also a talented mathematician, atronomer and astrologer, and was nicknamed "theone and a quarter maharajah" because of his accomplishments, a title still used to this day. It was he who ordered the building of the five Jantar Mantars of which those here and in Dehli survive.
Each Maharajah appears to have added quarters depending on the number of wives he had. There is a central private courtyard with four doors, the Maharajah using differing doors depending on the season and the season being relfected in their decoration; lotus for summer, roses for winter, green for spring and peacocks for the monsoon. Outside are the public areas and two enormous silver jars of 8182L capacity are displayed. When Edward VII was crowned the current Maharajah drank only Ganges water and he took one of these jars filled with Ganges water to London for the coronation.
There is an extremely interesting display of textiles, the formal robes being retained in good condition back to the 17C including those belonging to the 17C maharajah who was 7' high, 4'across and weighed 256kg.
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