Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ner courtyard. Rama
VI
passed away two years after the work had started, and Rigotti,
his contract finished, went back to Italy in 1926. his highly ornate and complex work,
which consists of three separate mansions, halted and it remained unfinished for several
years. Work resumed in the early years of the constitutional monarchy, under Field Mar-
shal Plaek Phibunsongkhram, the prime minister, with Manfredi responsible for the ar-
chitectural design and Corrado Feroci executing the interior designs and the sculptural
work. The rooster motifs that can be found in the windows and under the eaves of the
Thai Khufa Building, which had been named by Field Marshal Plaek and forms the front of
the structure, refer to the Year of the Rooster, the prime minister's birth year. Government
House is one of the great defining works of Suan Dusit, yet it has attracted controversy
over the years for the perceived transplanting of a classical Italian style into an entirely
different culture. One of the main critics was its architect. Late in his life, still in Bangkok,
Ercole Manfredi gave an interview to a local newspaper. He was always regarded as an ec-
centric, even his daughter Maly remarking that he was “an odd number”, and he tended to
be cantankerous and bluntly spoken. He was dismissive of his work on Norasingha Man-
sion. “I built it in the Venetian style because I thought that Bangkok was the Venice of the
East,” he told the Bangkok Post during the 1967 interview. “Now I am so ashamed of it. It
is just not right for this climate.”
Many of the other royal palaces and mansions of Dusit have been given over to gov-
ernment use or are used by the armed forces, but many have become museums. One of
the first permanent works to be completed at Dusit was the Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall,
a single-storey ornate building with carved floral motifs on panels adorning the gables
and eaves. Completed in 1904, it was used for official receptions of foreign dignitaries.
The hall fell into disuse after 1932, but after decades of neglect it was restored in the late
1980s and became a museum dedicated to Thai handicrafts. Suan Dusit's former elephant
stables have been converted into the Royal Elephant National Museum, with displays on
the use of elephants in war, and the ceremonies that have surrounded the fabled white
elephants. Chan Kasem Palace, built in 1909-11 for Crown Prince Vajiravudh, who suc-
ceeded his father as Rama
VI
before he had time to take up residence, now houses the
Ministry of Education. Paruskawan Palace, built in 1905 for Prince Chakrabongse, is now
the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Bureau and the National Intelligence Agency.
Ladawan Palace, built in 1907 for Prince Yugala, who was the Prince of Lopburi, fell into
a sad state of repair in the 1990s after years of neglect, but it has recently been restored
by the Crown Property Bureau, who use it as their headquarters. Sometimes known as
the Red Palace, because of the crimson wall that encircles the estate, Ladawan was de-
