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Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)

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Napier Museum, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

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Overview

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala's capital – still usually referred to by its colonial-era name, Trivandrum – is a relatively compact but energetic city spread across low-lying hills and is an easygoing introduction to urban life down south. Most travelers merely springboard from here to the nearby beaches of Kovalam and Varkala, but Trivandrum (once capital of the princely state of Travancore) has enough good food and intriguing sights – including a zoo, a Travancore palace and a cluster of Victorian museums in glorious neo-Keralan buildings – to justify a stay.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

  • Museum of History & Heritage

    Museum of History & Heritage

    Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)

    Occupying a handsome 120-year-old heritage building within the Kerala Tourism complex, this intelligently presented museum traces Kerala's history and…

  • Napier Museum

    Napier Museum

    Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)

    Housed in an 1880 wooden building designed by Robert Chisholm (a British architect whose Fair Isle–style version of the Keralite vernacular shows his…

  • Shri Padmanabhaswamy Temple

    Shri Padmanabhaswamy Temple

    Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)

    Trivandrum’s spiritual heart is this 18th-century temple (closed to non-Hindus) in the Fort area, which fuses Keralan and Dravidian architecture and whose…

  • Puthe Maliga Palace Museum

    Puthe Maliga Palace Museum

    Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)

    Overlooking the Shri Padmanabhaswamy Temple tank, the opulent 18th-century palace of the Travancore maharajas is a classically Keralan world of…

  • Shri Chitra Art Gallery

    Shri Chitra Art Gallery

    Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)

    Within the grounds of Trivandrum's zoo, this gallery displays paintings by the Rajput, Mughal and Tanjore schools, and portraits by renowned Keralite…

  • Zoological Gardens

    Zoological Gardens

    Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)

    Yann Martel famously based the animals in his novel Life of Pi on those he observed in Trivandrum’s Zoological Gardens. Shaded paths meander through…

  • Natural History Museum

    Natural History Museum

    Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)

    In Trivandrum's Zoological Gardens complex (but not inside the zoo itself), the Natural History Museum contains hundreds of stuffed animals and birds and…

  • St Joseph's Cathedral

    St Joseph's Cathedral

    Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)

    One of Trivandrum's major churches, the Roman Catholic St Joseph's is a whitewashed neo-Gothic creation from 1873, topped by a soaring bell tower added in…

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