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Champaner
Around Champaner > Excursion Vadodara (Laxmi Vilas Palace, museum, Sayajibag, public buildings) 46 km, One of the largest and, perhaps the finest, specimen of Indo-Saracenic architecture in the country, the Laxmi Vilas is home to Ranjit Singh Pratap Singh Gaekwad, heir to one of the wealthiest princely houses in India. Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad III (1875-1939) is a legend in the State and his name finds a frequent mention in this lovely city of banyan trees through which the Vishwamitra flows. The adopted son of Queen Jamnabai, he took Baroda to a wonderful era aided by the astute statemanship of his chief minister, Diwan Madhav Rao. Sayaji Rao began constructing the Laxmi Vilas Palace in 1878 naming it after his first wife, a princess of Tanjore. The dancers, whom the princess brought with her as part of the dowry, are said to be responsible for making Bharatanatyam popular in the North.
Beautiful statuary, marble fountains, Moorish arcades and stained
glass windows adorn the structure. It is quite a long drive from
the huge wrought iron gates, mounted with the royal emblem, to the
doorway of the palace. The fossils were found in the Songhir Bagh Basin, the Himatnagat basin of Balasinor, southeastern parts of Kheda, Panchamahals and Vadodara districts of the state. Other places:
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