The Laxmi Niwas Palace

His Highness Sir Ganga Singh commissioned Laxmi Niwas in 1904, the palace says, for two reasons: to give the townspeople work, and to build a residence worthy of the royal house of Bikaner. He supervised it himself, and the friezes, the near-perfect symmetry, the ornate filigree and the latticed screens are all put down to his eye. He was also, by the palace's own account, a famous host whose guests tended to overstay by months. Little has changed. The red sandstone still glows at dusk, the lawns still run out to the front gates, and a night here is a night inside the last age of the maharajas.