After King Abdulaziz — may God have mercy on him — regained the city of Riyadh and settled there, he lived in the Dukhna area in Al‑Deira, where the old houses of Al Saud, built by Imam Turki, were located. These houses were in poor condition, so the King ordered their restoration so he and his family could reside in them until he moved elsewhere.
He later ordered the construction of a house for himself and additional houses for his family near him in Al‑Murabba‘. At that time, Prince Saud lived with his father in Al‑Deira until he reached approximately fifteen years of age. He then moved to a private residence with his mother upon his marriage to the mother of his eldest son, Fahd — after whom he was nicknamed. She was Munira bint Saad bin Saud bin Faisal bin Turki, and this was around the year 1339 AH, eight years after King Abdulaziz entered Riyadh.
This house was about 200 meters from his father’s residence and was located near the home of Sheikh Muhammad ibn Ibrahim. Before her death, it had been inhabited by Noura bint Imam Faisal bin Turki. The house was located in an area known as Nuzhan. When the construction of Qasr Al‑Murabba‘ was completed, King Abdulaziz moved there with his family and allocated a residence for each of his wives and their children.
King Abdulaziz also built a palace for his eldest son, Saud, adjacent to his own palace in Al‑Murabba‘, separated only by a wall. It was located opposite the southern wall of his father’s palace, between the southern entrance of Qasr Al‑Murabba‘ and a street 16–20 meters wide. To its east stood the well‑known Guest Palace, and to the west the road leading to Al‑Murabba‘ from the southern side. Prince Saud lived there with his mother — may God have mercy on her — his children, and his wives. King Abdulaziz moved to Qasr Al‑Murabba‘ around 1356 AH.
On the night of Tuesday, 18‑7‑1362 AH (22‑7‑1943 CE), during a summer night, Prince Saud was sleeping in a rooftop room due to the heat, while his mother slept on the other side of the roof. After midnight, a massive fire broke out in the storage room on the ground floor and began to spread. The fire was directly beneath the room where Prince Saud slept, as the house consisted of two floors.
Prince Saud ordered the guards to evacuate his wives and children into the courtyard, then rushed to his mother’s room, carried her on his back, and descended the stairs to the lower floor. King Saud — may God have mercy on him — set a noble example of devotion to his mother. When the fire erupted, he gathered his strength, threw carpets ahead of him to create a safe path through the flames, climbed to his mother’s room, carried her on his shoulder, and brought her safely to the courtyard.
The fire continued until the next day, Wednesday, 19‑7‑1362 AH, when the house began to collapse, starting with the section beneath Prince Saud’s room. King Abdulaziz then ordered Saud to move to the adjacent Guest Palace, which was small and unable to accommodate many people, so Saud relocated his wives and children elsewhere.
King Abdulaziz ordered the construction of the Red Palace, built south of the burned residence as a gift to his son Saud and as compensation for the destroyed home. The construction was carried out by Muhammad bin Laden and a team of Egyptian engineers. King Abdulaziz told Ibn Laden during its construction: “I want you to build the most beautiful palace for my son Saud.”
When the palace was completed, Prince Saud lived in it for five years. During that time, he would visit the orchards of Bin Nasser in Riyadh and eventually requested to purchase them to build a residence there. He bought the land and named it Al‑Nasiriyah. He instructed Ibn Laden to build his Nasiriyah Palace on it, as the land was larger than that of the Red Palace. Construction took three years, and he moved his family there on March 15, 1957, where they lived for three years.
As his family grew, he left for the Red Palace and moved his family to the Sahari Hotel near the old airport. He then ordered the demolition of the old Nasiriyah residence and the construction of the new Nasiriyah, completed in 1956. Upon its completion, it became King Saud’s official residence.
King Saud later gifted the Red Palace to the Council of Ministers so that Crown Prince Faisal could also have an office there to receive visitors, as he used to receive guests in his home after returning from the Hijaz.
As for King Saud’s palace that burned in Al‑Murabba‘, its site later became the location of the first secondary school in Riyadh — Al‑Yamamah Secondary School — which remained until it was incorporated into the King Abdulaziz Historical Center project.