Republican Palace, Government palace in Baghdad, Iraq

The Republican Palace is a low, symmetrical building of pale tan stone in Baghdad's Green Zone, with two main storeys of rectangular windows and low corner towers. A columned portico with steps marks the entrance, topped by a shallow turquoise dome on a round, windowed drum; a wide paved area with a round pool and lawn lies in front. The central section under the dome and two wings formed J. Brian Cooper's original design, and further wings were added under Saddam Hussein.

King Faisal II commissioned the palace in the 1950s as a new principal royal residence for his planned wedding to Princess Sabiha Fazila Khanim Sultan; the architect was J. Brian Cooper of Birmingham. The king was assassinated in the 1958 coup before living there, and the building was renamed the Republican Palace. From 1963 it housed the Iraqi Presidency, and from 2003 the US-led coalition used it as headquarters until it was returned to the Presidency on 1 January 2009.

The palace's name changed from Royal to Republican after the 1958 coup that killed King Faisal II, who never lived there. In the north wing, a stone mural titled "Baghdad My Beloved" in Arabic was designed by Nahla, an Iraqi artist and orchestra member, who won a 1990s competition but was not allowed to oversee its execution and has seen it only in a photograph.

The complex sits within Baghdad's secured Green Zone with access limited to government personnel and authorized diplomatic delegations. Visitors should expect strict controls and prior arrangements required for entry.

The palace was designed by J. Brian Cooper of Birmingham, England, and his watercolour, drawn by Lawrence Wright, shows the original plan as only the domed central section with two wings; the outer extensions and bronze portrait heads on the roof came under Saddam Hussein. In the early 1990s an Iraqi artist named Nahla won a competition for a mural in the north wing, titled Baghdad My Beloved in Arabic across its face, but she was given no part in its making and has never seen it in person.