King Narai's Palace

King Narai’s Palace, Phra Narai Ratchaniwet in Thai, fills a large walled compound on the west side of Lopburi’s old town, near the Lopburi River. Narai ordered it built in 1666 and spent a large part of each year here, ruling from Lopburi rather than from Ayutthaya. The pointed-arch gateways and window niches reflect the Persian and European tastes of his cosmopolitan court.

The grounds are divided into a series of courts. In the outer areas you can trace the brick ruins of twelve royal storehouses, a water tank fed by a piped supply system that was much admired at the time, and a reception hall for foreign visitors. Further in stand the Dusit Sawan Thanya Maha Prasat, an audience hall for important envoys, and the Chanthara Phisan pavilion, Narai’s first residence here. The king later moved to the Suttha Sawan pavilion, where he died in 1688.

The white 19th-century buildings in the middle of the compound were added by King Mongkut (Rama IV), who restored the palace from 1856. They have housed a museum since 1924, now called the Somdet Phra Narai National Museum, with Khmer-period sculpture from Lopburi, Ayutthaya-period art and displays on rural life.