The palace as it appears today was greatly influenced by Western architecture, including colonial and Victorian motifs. Anna--tutor to the son of Rama IV and the central figure in the story The King and I--lived here. The royal family moved to Chitralada Palace after the death of King Ananda in 1946, but it was here, in 1981, that General Chitpatima attempted to overthrow the government in an unsuccessful coup.

As you enter the palace gate, built in the 1780s, you'll see the Pavilion for Holy Water, where priests swore loyalty to the royal family and purified themselves with water from Thailand's four main rivers. Nearby is a lacquered-wood structure called the Arporn Phimok Prasad (Disrobing Pavilion), built so the king could conveniently mount his palanquin for royal elephant precessions. (Most of the time it served as a kind of elephant parking lot.) Also nearby is the Chakri Maha Prasad, designed by Western architects as a royal residence for Rama IV to commemorate the centennial of the Chakri dynasty. The king's advisors urged him to use Thai motifs to demosstrate his independence from growing Western influence: The Thai, temple-style roof rests physically and symbolically on top of an imperial Victorian building. This Thai-Victorian building contains the ashes of royal family members on the third floor, the throne room and reception hall on the main floor, and a collection of weapons on the ground floor. The whitewashed stone building nearby now serves as the Funeral Hall, though it was originally the residence of Rama I and Rama II. The corpse of a deceased royal figure is kept in this building for a year before it is cremated in a nearby field. On each of the four corners of the roof is a garuda (the half-human, half-bird "steed" of Rama, an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu), symbolizing the king, who is considered a reincarnation of Rama. The garden was rebuilt under Rama IV in the 1860s, and the highlight here is a section that reproduces the landscape of a Thai mountain-and-woods fable. This structure was used as a ceremonial place for Thai princes to cut the top knot of their hair in a coming-of-age ritual. The Grand Palace also has a harem, the Forbidden Quarters (no one other than the king was allowed to enter), where the king's wives lived. Close by is the Amarin Vinichai Prasad or the Coronation Hall, built by Rama I and added to by subsequent kings. Today this building is used, like the palace in general, for royal coronations, weddings, and state events only, and it is here that the king makes his grandest appearances.