Among the various cities in Gujarat, Jamnagar has a special significance in the history and architectural beauty of the state. Built in 1920s, the city has established its name in the state as an industrialised unit with major presence of oil refineries and warranting its names as Oil City of India. Apart from being one of the developed cities in the state, Jamnagar boasts of rich heritage and tradition marking the Gujarati culture. Presently, this city is close to the Arabian Sea towards the south of Gulf of Kutch and at a distance of 337 kms from the capital city of Gujarat, Gandhinagar.

From tourist point of view, Jamnagar proposes a number of sightseeing places, mostly influenced by the several rulers over a period of time. Lots of Shiva temples can be found in this city such as Sidhnath Mahadev temple, Badri Kedarnath temple, Kashi Vishwanath Temple and Nilakanth Mahadev Temple, besides other Hindu temples. Jainism had a major influence in this region, reflected in the myriad sacred places in the region, such as Raisi Shah’s Temple, Vasupujya Swami’s Temple, Sheth’s Temple and Vardhman Shah’s Temple. These were erected mostly during the latter half of 16th century. From historical days, Jamnagar has been in limelight, much because of its favoured location for trading and the present day industrialisation has caught the fancy of plenty of people touring the state of Gujarat. Jamnagar thereby becomes an important station in the tour itineraries of Gujarat tourism.

Sightseeing in Jamnagar includes Pratap Vilas Palace and Peter Scott Nature Park

Sightseeing places in Jamnagar comprises of important forts, monuments, parks and palaces showcasing the heritage of the maharajas from the historical periods. One such palace and park of touristic significance is the Pratap Vilas Palace and Peter Scott Nature Park in Jamnagar. His Royal Highness Maharaja Ranjitsinhji constructed this beautiful palace between the period of 1907 and 1915. Thereafter in 1968, Jam Singh made lots of changes into the garden area of the palace grounds, to convert it into a nature park. He brought various live specimens of flora and fauna and gave the park a feel of conserved area.

Architecture

Speciality of Pratap Vilas Palace is marked in the architectural style of the construction which had been done mostly in the European styles, interlaced with Indian carvings, providing it a completely unique appeal. The aim of construction was to create a replica of the Victoria memorial in Calcutta, although the domes were done in Indian style with three domes on this building built from glass. Entire palace is decorated with carvings of structures like birds, animals, creepers, leaves, flowers and even human portraits.

Present Day Condition

After the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, this place also got affected. In some places, the walls have separated from the roof, while cracks have appeared in many places of the parapets. The loss has been major and required plenty of expenses to renovate the structure, until which time, the visitors were not allowed into the building. After the royalty in India was declared null and void after independence, the privy purses were confiscated and since then, the maintenance of the Pratap Vilas Palace and Peter Scott Nature Park has not been up to satisfactory levels. Since the road and rail communication to Jamnagar is quite good, tourists can arrive here and have a view of the Pratap Vilas Palace and Peter Scott Nature Park, which is located in the centre of the city. Entry into the palace grounds requires permission from the royal family which can be obtained from the Darbar Bagh office.