Kapurthala
Kapurthala is a city in the Punjab state of India.
It is the administrative headquarters of the Kapurthala District. It was the capital of the Kapurthala State, a princely state in British India. It is an immediate neighbour of Jalandhar city proper, and a part of the Jalandhar Metropolitan Region. The aesthetic mix of the city, with its prominent buildings based on French and Indo-Saracenic architecture self-narrate its princely past. And for this reason, it has often been referred to as the “Paris of Punjab”. It is also known as the 'City of Palaces & Gardens'. According to the 2011 census, Kapurthala is the least populated city in India.
Getting to Kapurthala
There are frequent buses between Kapurthala and Jalandhar. Buses and taxis are also available from Amritsar, about 75km from Kapurthala, where the nearest airport is located. Kapurthala is in the Jalandhar-Firozpur section of the Indian railway network.
- 01Kapurthala
Worth seeing
Gurudwara Ber Sahib. It is here Guru Nanak Sahib entered the Bein rivulet and stayed three days in the water.
- 01Jagatjit Palace
Once home of Maharaja Jagatjit Singh, it is the most impressive building in the city, inspired by European palaces.
- 02Panch Mandir
A temple, home of five small temples.
- 03Moorish Mosque
A replica of the Grand Mosque of Marrakech, commissioned by the last ruler of Kapurthala, Maharajah Jagatjit Singh to a French architect.
Things to do
- 01Kanjli Wetlands
Man-made Wetland that subsumes the Kanjli Lake.
Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: mvskapurthala@gmail.com (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.