Government Museum, Trichy
Government Museum is a heritage centre located in Trichy City in Tiruchirappalli District of Tamil Nadu. It is situated at Rani Mangammal Mahal in Singarathoppu, near Super Bazaar. It is also located close to the famous Rockfort Temple.
History
Rani Mangammal Mahal was built by Chokkanatha Nayak, the then ruler of Madurai. It was also known as the Durbar Hall of the Madurai Nayaks when Tiruchirappalli was their capital, from 1616 to 1634 and later from 1665 to 1731. This museum was established in 1983 by the State Department of Museums at Cantonment after Salem and Madurai, as a principle of Tamil Nadu government to have museum in every district. It was later moved to Rani Mangammal Durbar Hall (a Monument built during Nayak rule, also known as Kolu Mandapam) during 1997, which is within Town Hall Complex. The museum is maintained by the Public Works Department.
The Museum
The museum contains array of exhibits relating to geology, zoology, paintings, anthropology, epigraphy and history. The museum has both indoor and outdoor exhibits of up to 2000 objects. Some of the indoor exhibits include epoch artefacts like megalithic sculptures, musical instruments, tools, carvings, stone age inscriptions, currencies and Chola-era coins, paintings, photographs, rare documents, palm-leaf manuscripts, fossils, tribal life of Pachaimalai & Kolli hills, weapon & cannonballs used by Hyder Ali, Early days snaps from BHEL company, Srirangam Temple Model, Rockfort Temple Model and philatelic materials.
The stone idols in the sculpture park forms the outdoor exhibits. The park opened on 17 Apr 2012 has about 45 Hindu sculptures of gods and goddesses dating 13th century to 18th century including sacrificial altar, stone Nandhis and Lingams. Rare sculpture from Thanjavur paintings displaying Lord Thirumal as crawling Krishna is on the display. Also, the display of Goddess Durga, Saint Manickavasagar, Chandra Sekhara and Lord Nataraja can be seen. The museum also has an ecology section which houses a collection of rare insects, birds and mammals.
Museum Timings
It is open throughout the year (Morning 10.00 AM to
Evening 5.00 PM except every Friday). Admission is
free
Connectivity
The Museum is located at about 750 meters from Rockfort
Bus Stop, 2 Kms from Trichy Chatiram Bus Station, 5 Kms from Trichy Central Bus
Stand, 5 Kms from Trichy Railway Junction and 9 Kms from Trichy Airport. The Museum
is located very close to near Super Bazaar and the famous Rockfort Temple.
