The Story Of Hill Palace Museum Tripunithura, Kerala
The Hill Palace of Tripunithura at the city of Kochi/Cochin is home to Kerala’s largest archeological museum, which is also the first heritage museum of Kerala. This hill place has in its 52 acres of land, a palace which is also a heritage museum, a deer park, a prehistoric park and a children’s park. The place is surrounded by many trees and medicinal herbs which add to the greenery in the midst of a busy city. This was built in the year 1865. The palace is also famous for being the location of various movie shoots. The Malayalam movie Manichitrathazhu was filmed here.
Myself and my colleague along with the driver cum guide of Kerala.com Travel Division of Worldviewer India Pvt. Ltd, Cochin, Mr. Anil went to the Hill Palace at Tripunithura for a day out. We went to the palace at around 10 AM in the morning. On reaching there we were greeted with the sight of the grand palace at a distance with a flight of stairs leading to it. This palace was set on a hill top. After purchasing the entry, parking and camera tickets we proceeded on to the top, where we parked the car.
From here we started to go up the stairs to the Hill Palace Museum. On reaching the top we were directed to the cloak room, where we were asked to deposit our footwear, camera and mobile phones, for all this was prohibited inside the museum. After this we went inside the museum. In most of the rooms, various artifacts belonging to the erstwhile Kochi Maharaja is put on display. These rooms are divided into galleries like Cabinet Hall, Painting Gallery, Wood Carving Gallery, Royal Jewellery Gallery, Epigraphy Gallery and many more galleries.
The main attractions of this museum includes the Golden Crown of the Maharaja, weighing around 1.75 kilograms presented by King Immanuel of Portugal; the Hebrew Old Testament Bible made out of goat’s skin; paintings of the former kings like Kerala Varma, Rama Varma and many more such royal artifacts.
After the palace tour we moved on to the deer park in the premises. While walking, we came across a Dinosaur figure at the pre – historic park. The Deer Park is home to a variety and a large number of Deer. Here we saw both Spotted Deer as well as Musk Deer. We had a great time taking pics of these Deers.
Then we moved on to the Heritage Museum of the palace. Here we saw a pond, a traditional area with a Tulasi plant and many more. From here we moved on to the Sculpture Museum, where sculptures made of stone were display. The palace tour then came to an end and hence we took some time to enjoy the views that this place offered. Earlier from here you could view the sea but now owing to the rising buildings this view is missing.
In the end we left off the place with a lot of photos in the camera as well as in our hearts. It is indeed a must visit place when in Kochi.
DEEPTHY. A
PALAKKAD, KERALA
