Shah himself played the role of a draftsman in the construction of the palace, pioneering a trend of high-rise residential building in Nepal. [break]
"Shah"s brilliance in planning and execution is reflected in the awesome design of the palace," said Bishnu Raj Karki, the director general of the department of archaeology, who himself is an acclaimed archeologist.
According to Karki, Shah built the palace in a period of seven years between 1818 and 1825 BS.
He designed it himself and built it at a strategically important place and time, just before invading the Kathmandu. Building the tallest ever palace of the time, according to archaeologists, was a part of the plan to shift his power base from the remote Gorkha, his ancestral place, to Nuwakot, as he needed an easy access to the Kathmandu Valley.
DOI has completed basic renovation to open it up as a museum. Karki said the renovation work will continue even after the museum´s door is opened for public.
The DOI has been gearing up efforts to collect Shah´s belongings and other materials related to him to have a well-packaged memoir of the nation´s unifier on display in the museum.
Shah´s beddings and furnishings, kept at Hanumandhoka palace, where he spent the later part of his life as a ruler of newly united Nepal with Kathmandu as the capital, are among many things to be dispatched to Nuwakot.
According to Narayan Bohora, an archaeological engineer with DOI, the palace is a meticulously executed pagoda style building. It was built after conquering Nuwakot, a separate kingdom then. The place was chosen because it already had a bunch of structures like theatres, stores, arsenal and temples, most of them built during Malla and Licchavi periods.
Shah designed the palace to serve as a multi-purpose fort for an ambitious ruler aspiring for a bigger state. The palace has a surveillance tower on the top that also houses a custody cell meant to detain renegades.
The sprawling building is over 46.6 feet in length and 38.4 feet in width with spacious halls and beautifully designed bedrooms. Representing a vintage tradition, it exhibits maximum use of wood and bricks.
The outer layer and façade of the palace are decorated with traditional windows and artifacts similar to those found in the Malla era palaces. Shah, according to historians, had called in masons from Kathmandu to give shape to his designs.
The palace can be reached driving upward the eastern hill for about 20 minutes from Trishuli bazaar.
Karki believes the opening of Nuwakot Palace as a museum will be a boost for Tourism Year 2011. He says the ownership of the museum will be handed over to locals soon after the operation begins.
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