Thiruvananthapuram Museum Complex | Napier Museum | Natural History Museum | Art Gallery

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Napier Museum:
The Napier Museum is an art and natural history museum situated in Thiruvananthapuram, India. The Museum is grounds to the Trivandrum Zoo, one of the oldest zoological gardens in India. The zoo was established in 1857 over 55 acres (220,000 m2) of land. It also contains the Sree Chitra Art Gallery, a separate art gallery established in 1935. The set of museums, along with the zoo, are managed by the Department of Museums and Zoos, a branch of the Department of Cultural Affairs of Kerala.

A building was constructed in 1857 during the reign of Uthram Thirunal Marthanda Varma, and later demolished in 1874 to lay foundation for a new building, during the reign of Ayilyam Thirunal. The Governor of Madras in 1872 appointed Robert Chisholm, a consulting architect of the Madras Government to design a new museum. In 1880, construction finished and the museum opened to the public, bearing the namesake of its governor, Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier. The Indo-Saracenic structure lacks an air conditioning system. Although it has never been an issue due to suitable natural ventilation, an annex built in 2016 was noted for various problems such as mold, insects and corrosion owing to the lack of windows and openings. Since 2017, the annexed museum depot has been under review and is being rebuilt. Furthermore, the Napier Museum itself is being renovated.

Some of the building features include a gothic roof and minarets. The Napier Museum, a landmark of the city, is noted for its unique ornamentation and architectural style, which is influenced by Indian, Chinese, Kerala and Mughal Schools of Architecture. The museum has a bandstand with concealed speakers and special acoustics. In the old days, the band of the Travancore Nair Brigade would play there every Friday. Later, the police band would play on Saturdays. The museum owns a garden which has many varieties of flowers and trees. It also shelters the oldest living rubber tree in Kerala. It was brought there in 1876 from Ceylon and planted in the museum grounds by Visakham Thirunal.

The museum houses a rare collection of archaeological and historic artifacts, bronze idols, ancient ornaments, a temple chariot and ivory carvings. The Indian epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are the inspiration for the museum's collection of Javanese shadow play leather puppets. Visiting Hours: Open 10.00 – 16.45 hrs. Closed on Mondays, Wednesday forenoons, 26 January, 15 August, Thiruvonam and Mahanavami.

Sree Chitra Art Gallery:
Sree Chitra Art Gallery is an art gallery in Thiruvananthapuram, India, established in 1935. It is located in the northern grounds of the Napier Museum. It was inaugurated by Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma. The gallery features a unique collection of traditional and contemporary paintings, including the works of Raja Ravi Varma, Nicholas Roerich, Svetoslav Roerich, Jamini Roy, Rabindranath Tagore, V. S. Valiathan, C. Raja Raja Varma, and K. C. S. Paniker. There are approximately 1100 paintings at the gallery.

The art gallery has on display works from the Mughal, Rajput, Bengal, Rajastani, and Tanjore schools of art. It also has an oriental collection of Chinese, Japanese, and Balinese paintings, Tibetan Thangka, and unique collections of Indian mural paintings from pre-historic times. Other items of interest include miniatures from different parts of the world, reproductions of murals of Ajanta, Bagh, Sigiriya, and Sittannavasal, and manuscripts of archival importance. The gallery houses 400-year-old Tanjore miniature paintings.

The gallery has 15 original works by the Roerichs and 43 original works by Raja Ravi Varma. Ravi Varma's rare pencil sketches are also displayed at the gallery. The paintings of Ravi Varma which were earlier kept at Chithralaya in Kilimanoor were given to the art gallery by the Kilimanoor Palace as a permanent loan in 1941. The palace originally handed over 70 Ravi Varma paintings but some of them are not on display at the art gallery due to space constraints. The Kerala government undertook the restoration of Ravi Varma paintings in 2005. Ravi Varma's masterpiece paintings Shakuntala and Damayanti Talking to a Swan are displayed at the gallery.