//
Photo: Manu rocks at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
In Kowdiar, this is the current, official residence of the Travancore Maharajas and royal family. It is off-the-limits for public. However, a friendly guard may let you inside to have a glimpse of this large architectural wonder built in mixture of Saxon-Travancore styles. The public however can enter into Panchavadi, the resting place of Late HH Maharaja Chitra Thirunal, the last and popular king of Travancore.
Kowdiar Palace is the official residence of the Travancore Royal Family, situated in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.The Kowdiar Palace, a regal residence was built by the Maharaja, Sri Chithira Thirunal. The Palace in its present form was completed in 1934, the year his only sister Karthika Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi married G V Raja.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
Golden Hill Palace in Malayalam
The cultural hotspot of ancient Thiruvananthapuram. The large palace and its sprawling gardens was once the banquet palace for visiting State guests of Travancore. Today, it has engaging galleries and the grand lawns serve as open-air auditoriums for regular concerts and evening dance programs.
This is the first zoo India opened in 1843, as a concept of Palace for wildlife. Situated in the Museum compound, this area has a rich botanical garden. There are a wide variety of animals, plants and birds. It has a separate reptile park and butterfly garden.
An art gallery in the Museum compound and displays a rare collection of mainly Indian paintings. The main attractions are paintings by Kerala painter Raja Ravi Varma and other famous painters Raja raja Varma and Nicholas Roerich. Also featured are miniature paintings from around the world, Kerala mural paintings, and Tanjore miniature paintings.
Art Gallery
Named after former Madras governor, Lord Napier (Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier and 1st Baron Ettrick), this museum is a beautiful building in the museum (read: park) compound. This masterpiece was designed by Madras Government architect Robert Chisholm in Indo-Saracenic style. The museum displays rare archaeological and historical artifacts including bronze idols, ceramics, an impressive carved wooden cart, Buddhist statues from various parts of the country and neighbouring places, ivory carvings, chests, Balinese shadow puppets, various old coins, Hindu puja items, and more. Quite a few objects are foreign, and of those quite a few are Chinese. Unfortunately most are lacking labels, have labels only in Malayalam, or are very vague. Look up at the impressive roof when you enter! No photography is allowed. There is no sign saying "Napier Museum", just "Art Gallery" and it's the big building in the park to the north of Museum Road.
Housed in a beautiful colonial building, this newly developed museum (circa 2008 vintage) presents a periodised history of Kerala. It's the first 'interactive' museum in the country, featuring touchscreen terminals. Like so many museums and historical texts in India, there are no maps inside to provide visual aid to the topics. Regardless, the museum is very pleasant, clean, modern and well presented when compared to others. Displays begin in the stone age and advance through rock art and stone tools to pottery, bronze sculptures, folk art and architecture, with a few latter-day items to boot. A small canteen behind the museum for staff of the adjacent tourist department offers good value fish or vegetable curry.
One of the largest planetaria in India and rated as one of the best horizontal planetaria of the world. It has a collection of astronomical science objects from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Two major shows regarding various secrets of universe are done daily. It has a good Sky Theatre, a large conference hall and is the location of regular space-related programmes.