Istana Nurul Iman

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The Istana Nurul Iman Palace

The Istana Nurul Iman palace is the official residence of the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah. The palace is located on a leafy, riverside sprawl of hills on the banks of the Brunei River directly south of Brunei's capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, no more than a few miles outside the city center. It is the largest residential palace in the world and the world's largest residence of any type. It was designed by National Artist of the Philippines for Architecture, Leandro V. Locsin. The geographic coordinates are 4°52′19.31″N, 114°55′14.72″E.

1 Specifications
2 Functions
3 Accessibility
4 World's Largest Palace
5 Comparisons
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Specifications

Although the palace is hidden from public view through artful landscaping, satellite views provided by programs such as Google Earth, have increased the public knowledge of the palace's layout. Such images have relayed the existence of two large buildings in the center of the palace and five smaller buildings either adjacent to or nearby the palace center.

Istana Nurul Iman contains 1,788 rooms, 257 bathrooms, and a floor area of 2,152,782 square feet (200,000 m²). Amenities include 5 swimming pools, an air conditioned stable for the Sultan's 200 polo ponies, a 110-car garage, a banquet hall that can be expanded to accommodate up to 5,000 guests, and a mosque accommodating 1,500 people. The palace was built in 1984 at a cost of around $400 million USD and has 564 chandeliers, 51,000 light bulbs, 44 stairwells, and 18 elevators. It is also a home to a car collection that includes custom-made Ferraris and Bentleys as well as 165 Rolls Royces. Its golden domes, designed by Filipino architect Leandro V. Locsin, and vaulted roofs echo Islamic and Malay architectural influences.

[edit] Functions

The palace is used for all State functions. It is both the seat of Brunei's government and the location of the prime minister's office. In addition to Audience and State Rooms, there is a Throne Chamber used for various occasions such as the proclamation of the Crown Prince and the annual Birthday Investiture.

[edit] Accessibility

The palace is not open to the public except on the annual Islamic celebration of Hari Raya Aidilfitri (the festival at the end of the Muslim fasting month) when the palace receives about 60,000 visitors over a three-day period.

[edit] World's Largest Palace

The title of the world's largest palace can be difficult to ascertain as many different standards are used to decide this distinction. Istana Nurul Iman is undisputedly the world's largest residential palace, and at 2,152,782 square feet, Istana Nurul Iman certainly has more floorspace than any other palace in the world.

However, it is primarily a residence while in many European palaces, most of the actual space in the palace is used for administrative and state purposes as is the case with Buckingham Palace. Thus Buckingham Palace bears the title of the world's largest "working" royal palace.

Still, Buckingham Palace is not even the largest palace in Europe. The Royal Palace of Madrid, in Spain, has 1,453,122 square feet of floor space making it larger than Buckingham Palace. However, the king of Spain resides elsewhere and it is used only for ceremonial purposes and heads of state visits thus it loses the title "largest working palace" to Buckingham Palace. In addition, some claim that Stockholm Palace, the 608 room official, but unoccupied, headquarters of the Swedish monarchy, is "the largest royal palace in the world that is still in use for its original purpose." Such a claim obviously ignores that the larger Istana Nurul Iman was built as, and is still used as, a royal palace.

Further complicating the title to "world's largest palace" is The Forbidden City which is the world's largest palace complex, but it is neither occupied as a residence nor is it one continuous building. In fact, it contains 800 different buildings. The total square footage of the complex is just less than 7,750,000 square feet, but with the vast open courtyards of the complex, the totaled square footage of the Forbidden City's collective buildings is smaller than that of Istana Nurul Iman.

And none of the above addresses "castles." Windsor Castle lays claim to the title "world's largest inhabited castle" while the Prague Castle castle lays claim to the outright title of "world's largest castle" despite the fact that much like the Forbidden City, it is merely a complex containing many separate buildings, some of which are palaces.