This beautiful palace which served as a summer retreat of Tipu Sultan is situated near the ‘City Market’ at the Krishna Rajendra and Albert Victor road junction. The palace was constructed to house the durbar or court, which would administer the happenings in the territory, while also serving as a summer retreat. 

Tipu’s Palace is the most notable among the Islamic buildings of Bangalore. Tipu called it has an ‘Abode of Happiness’ and ‘Envy of Heaven’. The construction of this Palace was commenced by Nawab Haider Ali Khan in 1781 and completed by Tipu Sultan in 1791.

This magnificent palace is built of wood, stone, mortar and plaster. It is a two storied building of symmetrical plan. Built on a stone plinth, the façade has gigantic fluted pillars in wood with stone bases that support huge wooden beams constituting the structure. Cusped arches and brackets spring off the pillars in typical Indo-Islamic style, painted and polished in two different colors to accentuate the carvings on them. The walls and wooden ceilings of the entire palace are painted in floral motifs on madder red surfaces, in muted warm colors, glided, in great detail and beauty. 

The upper chambers and balconies can be accessed by four staircases leading to them. The central portion on the first floor, is a large hall leading off to four smaller rooms at its corners. These rooms are considered the Zenana quarters. Located in two balconies on the North and South where the seats of State, where the Sultan held audience and conducted his affairs of State. There is an enclosed private space below this area that houses a museum which houses a number of artifacts which proclaim Tipu’s bravery and his deftness in warfare. These collections bring to the fore the zeal with which Tipu guarded his territory against the mighty British.