King Narai's Palace

The King Narai's Palace (Thai: ; RTGS: Phra Narai Ratchaniwet) in Lopburi was built by King Narai the Great, the king who ruled Ayutthaya from 1656 to 1688. He ordered the palace built in 1666 in the same area as King Ramesuan's Palace. King Narai stayed here for about 8–9 months a year, except during the rainy season. He designated Lopburi as the second capital of the Ayutthaya Kingdom. The palace was a place for relaxation, hunting, administering the country's affairs, and welcoming official visitors. When the king died in 1688, Lopburi and the palace were abandoned. The palace is described in the Eulogy of King Narai, probably composed around 1680. The description highlights the system for bringing piped water to the palace. John Listopad holds that the Dusit Sawan Thanya Maha Prasat, the hall in which Narai received foreign envoys, has no prototype in earlier Siamese architecture and was modelled on the Ālī Qāpū built at Isfahan for Shah Abbas I in 1597. He describes the building as facing two ways: a pointed arch with a keystone in the Persian manner is turned towards the public front, while the rear carries the Thai bracket known as than sing. The same doubling is reversed at the Jesuit chapel at Ban Wichayen, built after 1662. Listopad notes that the French accounts on which much of the reign's architectural history rests cover only its last six years

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