Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WALK 12
DUSIT
Almost Heaven
Dusit, built for the royal family when the centre of Bangkok became too congested, is a re-
markable blending of European and Siamese design, created largely by a team of Italian
architects and engineers.
Duration: 3 hours
Since 1782 and the founding of Bangkok as the capital, the monarchs of the Chakri dyn-
asty had resided at the Grand Palace. The palace had been the first building erected in
the new city, and all else had stemmed from there. Many of the buildings within the palace
compound, and the palaces built nearby, also housed government departments. Bangkok
was not a large city. Most of the transportation was by canal and river, as the first roads
were not built until eighty years after the city was founded. For the first four kings the
Grand Palace had served as an effective residence and centre of government. During the
reign of Rama
V
, however, many new structures were built inside the palace walls, both to
accommodate the increasing needs of state and to house the growing population of the roy-
al court. As a result the palace grounds became very crowded, and stiflingly hot during the
summer months, with the passage of air being blocked by the closely clustered new build-
ings. Sanitation was a significant problem, and epidemics spread easily within the crowded
compound. Siam was developing and any further works were clearly not possible.
Rama
V
made his first visit to Europe in 1897, the first European visit by any Siamese
monarch. He became convinced that a new palace needed to be built, along with a series of
other palaces to house members of the royal family and the ministries of state. For this he
would need an area of land outside the city, and he would also need foreign expertise in ar-
chitecture and engineering. The king, to escape the confines of the Grand Palace, had been
fond of visiting the area between the third moat, dug in his father's time, and the Samsen
