Bucharest's Palace of the Parliament holds 365,000 square metres of floor space and is routinely called the biggest palace on earth, yet it is absent here, because no monarch ever lived in it. That is the first rule this countdown follows: a palace is a walled precinct built as a ruler's residence and court, which is why the Teutonic Knights' fortress at Malbork qualifies and a parliament building does not. The second rule is what gets measured — the ground enclosed by the outer walls, counting courtyards and inner gardens but not detached parkland. Those two rules run from 24 feddans in Cairo up to the 103 hectares of Delhi's Red Fort, and they cost the list some famous names: Versailles is landscape rather than precinct, and the Forbidden City, almost always crowned the largest palace in the world, finishes third.
14 Largest Palaces in the World (2026)
The record The largest palace in the world is the Red Fort, in India — 254.67 acres (103.06 ha), enclosed precinct area. Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre (Red Fort Complex) / Archaeological Survey of India. Verified .
Largest Palaces in the World The Ranking at a Glance
Fun Facts About the World's Largest Palaces
- The Forbidden City is mostly open ground — 720,000 square metres sit inside its walls, but the 980 buildings standing on that ground hold only about 150,000 square metres of floor between them.
- The building with the most palace floor space isn't on this list — Bucharest's Palace of the Parliament holds 365,000 square metres, more than any actual royal palace, but no monarch has ever lived in it.
- Malbork is the largest castle on earth by land area, and it counts as a palace here because the Teutonic Grand Master who lived in it ruled as a sovereign prince, not merely as a soldier.
- Versailles is missing for a reason — its estate runs to roughly 800 hectares, but almost all of that is landscaped park rather than enclosed palace precinct.
- Two of these fourteen were finished this century — Abu Dhabi's Qasr Al Watan in 2017 and Kuala Lumpur's Istana Negara in 2011, which between them enclose more ground than all three European entries on the list combined.
1. Red Fort
At 254.67 acres — 103 hectares ringed by 2.4 kilometres of red sandstone wall — the Red Fort encloses more ground than any other palace on earth. Shah Jahan ordered it in 1639 as the palace-fort of Shahjahanabad, the new Mughal capital he was raising at Delhi, and the ramparts still stand 18 metres high on the river side and 33 metres high towards the city.
Inside, the sequence is theatrical. The Lahori Gate opens onto Chatta Chowk, a vaulted bazaar, which leads to the Diwan-i-Aam where the emperor heard public petitions, and beyond it to the marble Diwan-i-Khas, the Rang Mahal and the Moti Masjid. UNESCO inscribed the Red Fort Complex in 2007, and India's prime minister still addresses the nation from its ramparts each Independence Day.
2. Istana Negara
At 97.65 hectares on a hillside northwest of central Kuala Lumpur, Istana Negara is second only to the Red Fort among the world's palace precincts. It is also the newest entry here by a wide margin: construction ran from 2007 to 2011, and the palace was inaugurated that November at a reported cost of around one billion ringgit.
Twenty-two domes crown a complex divided into formal, royal and administrative components — a working residence for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Malaysia's elected king, rather than a museum. The interior is closed to the public, so visitors photograph the gilded gates and the mounted guards from the road outside. It replaced a much smaller Istana Negara on Jalan Istana, which now serves as a royal museum.
3. Forbidden City
The Forbidden City encloses 720,000 square metres — 72 hectares — inside its moat and its ten-metre walls, and that figure is the source of one of travel's most persistent misunderstandings. Its 980 surviving buildings hold only about 150,000 square metres of actual floor space between them; the rest is courtyard and paving. Measured on enclosed ground, where it belongs, it ranks third.
Completed in 1420, it was the seat of the Ming and Qing emperors until 1912 and now operates as the Palace Museum. Visitors enter by the Meridian Gate and cross a vast paved court to the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the ceremonial centre of the complex, before the scale contracts into the smaller residential courtyards of the Inner Court. UNESCO listed it in 1987.
4. Gyeongbokgung
Gyeongbokgung spreads across 410,000 square metres, or 41 hectares, at the head of Seoul's old ceremonial axis, the largest of the city's five Joseon palaces. It was founded in 1395, three years after the dynasty took power, on a site chosen for the mountain at its back and the water in front of it.
Fire and war have taken it down more than once. It burned during the Japanese invasions of the 1590s and stood in ruins for close to three centuries before a wholesale reconstruction in 1867. Today the Gwanghwamun gate hosts a changing of the guard, the Gyeonghoeru banquet pavilion sits on its own island in an artificial pond, and the National Folk Museum of Korea occupies part of the grounds.
5. Qasr Al Watan
Qasr Al Watan stands within a presidential palace compound of 380,000 square metres, 38 hectares — a figure it shares exactly with Agra Fort at number six, so the order between those two is a rounding choice rather than a real gap. Completed in 2017 and opened to the public in March 2019, it is the youngest palace on this list.
The Great Hall is crowned by a dome 37 metres across, and the building rises 60 metres in white granite and limestone. Unlike most entries here it is no museum piece: the Cabinet and the Federal Supreme Council still meet in it and visiting heads of state are still received, with the public admitted around that working schedule. The House of Knowledge holds facsimiles of Arab scientific manuscripts.
6. Agra Fort
Agra Fort encloses 94 acres — 38 hectares, level with the Qasr Al Watan compound above it — behind a semicircular red sandstone wall 2.5 kilometres around and 21 metres high. It was the principal residence of the Mughal emperors from 1565 until 1638, when Shah Jahan moved the court to Delhi and began the Red Fort that now tops this list.
It is better described as a walled city than a fort, with Jahangir's Palace, the Khas Mahal and the Diwan-i-Khas set among mosques and gardens inside the ramparts. From the marble pavilions on the river side there is a clear view downstream to the Taj Mahal, about two kilometres away. UNESCO inscribed the fort in 1983.
7. Potala Palace
The Potala covers more than 360,000 square metres — 36 hectares — on Red Hill above Lhasa, level on enclosed area with Vietnam's Imperial City below it. Its buildings account for only about 130,000 square metres of that total; the rest is rampart, terrace and approach, climbing the hillside in stages to a summit roughly 116 metres above the valley floor.
The White Palace held the administrative offices and the living quarters, while the Red Palace at the centre holds the chapels and the tombs of past Dalai Lamas. Walls up to five metres thick are anchored into the rock beneath. The whole structure sits at about 3,700 metres above sea level, high enough to leave unacclimatised visitors short of breath on the stairs. UNESCO listed it in 1994.
8. Imperial City of Huế
The Imperial City of Huế is a 36-hectare square, level with the Potala, enclosed by brick walls four metres high and a broad moat. It is the middle ring of three: the far larger Kinh Thanh citadel surrounds it, and within it sits the Purple Forbidden City, the Nguyen emperors' private quarters, laid out in conscious imitation of Beijing.
Only that inner 36 hectares counts here, because the outer citadel encloses a working town rather than a court. Entry is by the Ngo Mon gate and across a bridge to the Thai Hoa palace, where emperors were crowned. Much of the complex was lost in the fighting of 1968 and restoration has run for decades since; UNESCO inscribed the Complex of Hué Monuments in 1993.
9. Hofburg
The Hofburg sprawls over 240,000 square metres — 24 hectares — in the middle of Vienna: 18 wings, 19 courtyards and around 2,600 rooms, in which some 5,000 people still work. It grew by accretion from the 13th century onward, each generation of Habsburgs adding a wing to what the last had built, which is why it reads as a city district rather than a single building.
It was the seat of Habsburg power until the monarchy ended in 1918, and it remains the official seat of Austria's federal president. A great deal of it is open to visitors: the Imperial Apartments and the Sisi Museum, the Imperial Treasury with the regalia of the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish Riding School, and the Austrian National Library's Baroque State Hall.
10. Grand Palace
Bangkok's Grand Palace occupies 218,400 square metres, close to 22 hectares, inside a wall that runs 1,900 metres around it. Rama I laid it out in 1782, when he moved the Siamese capital across the river to Bangkok, and it served as the royal residence until the early 20th century, when the court moved north to Dusit.
The compound divides into an Outer Court of government offices, a Middle Court holding the throne halls, and an Inner Court once reserved for the king's household. In its northeastern corner stands Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most revered shrine in Thailand. Coronations and state ceremonies still take place here, and a dress code covering shoulders and knees is enforced at the gate.
11. Malbork Castle
Malbork encloses 143,591 square metres — just over 14.3 hectares — within its walls, which makes it the largest castle in the world by land area. The Teutonic Knights began it in 1274 on the bank of the Nogat, and from 1309 it served as the seat of their Grand Master — a sovereign ruler in his own right, which is what earns a Gothic fortress its place among palaces.
It is built in three parts: the High Castle, which was the Order's monastery, the Middle Castle with the Grand Master's apartments and the Great Refectory, and the Low Castle of armouries and workshops. The complex was wrecked in 1945 and rebuilt over the decades that followed. UNESCO inscribed it in 1997, and it now draws close to half a million visitors a year.
12. Alhambra
The Alhambra covers about 142,000 square metres — 35 acres — along the Sabika ridge above Granada, and it is less a palace than a small walled royal town. Begun as a fortress in 1238 under Muhammad I, it became the court of the Nasrid dynasty, the last Muslim rulers in Iberia, and held that role until 1492.
The Nasrid Palaces are why most people come: the Mexuar, the Comares palace with its Hall of the Ambassadors, and the Court of the Lions with its fountain resting on twelve stone lions. Around them lie the Alcazaba fortress at the western tip, the Generalife gardens on the slope opposite, and the Renaissance bulk of Charles V's palace. The Nasrid rooms are entered by timed slot.
13. Umaid Bhawan Palace
Umaid Bhawan stands in 26 acres of grounds on a rise above Jodhpur and, with 347 rooms, ranks among the largest private residences in the world. Maharaja Umaid Singh commissioned it in 1929 as a famine relief work, employing thousands of labourers through the drought years, and it was finished in 1943.
It is built of golden-yellow Chittar sandstone cut into interlocking blocks, in an art-deco idiom unusual for an Indian palace. The building is now split three ways: the Jodhpur royal family occupies one wing, a second runs as a Taj hotel, and a third houses a museum of clocks, weapons and vintage cars. A subterranean swimming pool sits beneath the central dome.
14. Abdeen Palace
Abdeen Palace covers 24 feddans — 100,800 square metres, almost exactly 10 hectares — in central Cairo, and closes this list. Khedive Ismail had it built between 1863 and 1874 to move the seat of Egyptian government down from the Cairo Citadel, part of the wholesale European remodelling of the capital that he pursued throughout his reign.
It served as the royal residence until the monarchy ended in 1953, and it remains one of Egypt's official presidential palaces. The public wings hold a cluster of museums covering arms and ammunition, silverware, royal decorations and medals, and gifts presented to Egypt's presidents, all set behind formal gardens. A visit runs to an hour or two, which makes it an easy addition to a day in central Cairo.
FAQ: The World's Largest Palaces
What is the largest palace in the world?
Delhi's Red Fort, which encloses 103 hectares — 254.67 acres — inside its sandstone walls. It edges out Kuala Lumpur's Istana Negara at 97.65 hectares. The Forbidden City, which is usually given the title, encloses 720,000 square metres and comes third on this measure.
Why isn't the Forbidden City number one?
Because of what gets measured. This countdown ranks the ground enclosed by a palace's outer walls, and on that basis Beijing's 720,000 square metres place third. Its 980 buildings hold only about 150,000 square metres of floor between them; most of what lies inside those walls is open courtyard.
What counts as a palace on this list?
A walled precinct built as the residence and court of a sovereign ruler. That admits fortified seats such as Malbork and Delhi's Red Fort. It excludes buildings that were never royal homes, which is why Bucharest's Palace of the Parliament — larger in floor space than any of these — does not appear at all.
Which of these palaces can you go inside?
Most of them. The Forbidden City, Gyeongbokgung, the Alhambra, Malbork, Agra Fort and the Red Fort all operate as museums or heritage sites with public admission. Qasr Al Watan admits visitors around its working schedule. Kuala Lumpur's Istana Negara is a working residence, viewable only from its gates.
Which is the largest palace in Europe?
The largest on this list is Vienna's Hofburg, covering 240,000 square metres across 18 wings and 19 courtyards, ninth worldwide. It remains the official seat of Austria's federal president, and a good deal of it — the Imperial Apartments, the Imperial Treasury and the Sisi Museum — is open to visitors.
Planning more of your trip? Keep exploring more world record-breakers.