From the archive record
The Padmanabhapuram Palace, celebrated as an exemplar of Kerala architecture and an excellent expression of traditional timber construction, is located near Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu. This royal mansion was home to the kings of Travancore for about 200 years before the capital was shifted to Thiruvananthapuram. Padmanabhapuram Palace is located in at Padmanabhapuram Fort, close to the town of Thuckalay in Kanyakumari District, Tamilnadu, in India. It is about 20 km from Nagercoil, and about 50 kilometers from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The palace complex is inside an old granite fortress around four kilometers long. The palace is located at the foot of the Veli Hills, which form a part of the Western Ghats. The river Valli flows nearby. The palace was constructed around 1601 AD by Iravi Var