Palace of Gold

The land around Moundsville sits in the Northern Panhandle, in country that was for thousands of years part of the ancestral homeland and hunting ground of the Shawnee, the Lenape, and other nations whose descendants continue elsewhere today. Nearby Moundsville takes its name from the great prehistoric Grave Creek Mound, one of the largest ancient earthworks in the country, a reminder of how long people have lived in this valley.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, followers of the Hare Krishna movement established a rural community here called New Vrindaban, named for a holy town in India. On these forested ridges they sought to build a self-sufficient spiritual community, farming the land and raising temples, with the Palace of Gold as their crowning project.

The palace was conceived as a home for the movement's founder, but he died before it was finished, and it became instead a memorial to him. Devotees who had come to New Vrindaban with little construction background threw themselves into learning the trades required, teaching themselves to cut and lay marble, carve wood, apply gold leaf, and craft stained glass.

The finished palace glitters with those hand-made details: floors and columns of imported marble, ceilings and trim covered in gold leaf, elaborate stained-glass windows, and carved and painted ornament in every room. That it was built by self-taught hands, on a remote Appalachian ridge, only deepens the sense of wonder visitors feel when they first see it.

Around the palace spread formal gardens, including a well-known rose garden, along with a lotus lake and landscaped grounds that make the site as much a place to wander as to tour. In warm months the flowers and greenery frame the gold and marble, and peacocks are often seen strolling the grounds.

Because New Vrindaban is a living community, visitors may encounter devotees, temple ceremonies, and the daily rhythms of religious life. A vegetarian meal is often available in keeping with the community's practice, and the whole visit carries a quiet, welcoming, and slightly otherworldly feel.

Decades of West Virginia weather have taken a toll on the palace, and it has gone through cycles of decline and careful restoration as the community works to preserve it. Visitors may find parts of the structure under repair, part of an ongoing effort to keep this extraordinary building standing.

For travelers exploring the Northern Panhandle, the Palace of Gold is an unforgettable and unlikely stop, easily combined with the ancient Grave Creek Mound and the historic town of Moundsville below. Few places in America bring together Appalachian hills and gilded Eastern splendor quite like this ridge.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.