Old Parliament House (Constitution House)
For 73 years India's democracy ran from a circle Lutyens drew to fit a triangular plot.
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This circular building opened in 1927 as the Imperial Legislative Council, then held the Constituent Assembly that wrote India's Constitution, then the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha until September 2023. Nearly a century of Indian legislative history passed through one building — now renamed Constitution House and preserved beside the new Parliament that replaced it.
What to look for
- The circular plan itself — Lutyens chose it for a triangular site partly because it evoked the Roman Colosseum
- Classical Greek and Roman architectural details fused with Indian structural elements and decorative motifs on the same facade
- The New Parliament House directly adjacent, inaugurated 28 May 2023
Parliament moved to the new building on 18 September 2023; the old building is now officially Samvidhan Sadan (Constitution House). Confirm current visitor access before going — the source does not specify public opening hours.
Old Parliament House (Constitution House) is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Delhi, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Delhi pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Delhi
- Red FortThe ramparts where Jawaharlal Nehru raised India's flag on 15 August 1947 still host that ceremony every Independence Day.
- Qutb MinarSuccessive dynasties handed this tower off across 170 years — Aibak started it in 1199, Firuz Shah Tughlaq capped it with a cupola in 1368.
- Humayun's TombThe red-sandstone ancestor of the Taj Mahal — commissioned by an empress, designed by Persian architects, and finished a century before Agra.
- Jama MasjidShah Jahan built his imperial mosque at the highest point of Shahjahanabad — the Mughal capital — and it was regarded as a symbolic gesture of Mughal power across India.
- Lotus TempleTwenty-seven marble petals, grouped in threes, fold into a single hall where any person of any faith walks in without condition.
- India GateAround 13,300 names carved in stone — soldiers lost across Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and the Afghan frontier.