Location:
Durbar Hall Road, Ernakulam Highlights: It boasts of an impressive collection of 19th century paintings, ancient monuments and coins et al.
How to Reach: You can easily get a taxi, auto-rickshaw or bus to reach here.
Pareekshith Thampuran Museum is a very good archeological museum located near the Shiva temple, on the Durbar Hall Road at Ernakulam. This museum boasts of an impressive collection of 19th century paintings, ancient monuments and coins, scriptures made in stone and Plaster of Paris, murals as well as memorabilia belonging to the Cochin royal family. Infact, Parikshit Thampuran Museum is counted amongst the best museums of not only Kerala, but the whole of the Indian subcontinent.
Much before it was turned into a museum, the building housing it was used as a venue to receive the guests of the Kochi royalty. It also substituted as a place for official ceremonies and meetings. The most attractive part of this magnanimous structure is the former guest room, or the durbar hall, of the Kochi rajas. It has a sprawling, stringently Kerala style structure. The museum is, now, under the administration of the State Archaeological Department, which named it after Rama Varma Parikshith Thampuran, the Royal family's last ruler.