Hill Palace was built in 1865 by the Maharaja Of Cochin and is now the largest archaeological museum in Kerala. The official capital of Kingdom of Kochi was located previously in Thrissur and the royal office of Maharaja as well as the court was all located in the city. However, as per ritualistic customs, the seat of Queen of Kochi was seen as Royal capital as Kochi royal family had matrilineal traditions and the queen was regarded as sovereign of the state under whose authority the King ruled. Since 1755, the Queen and her retinue lived in Tripunithura, thereby making the city as official capital. Also the Prince Rama Varma was raised in Tripunithura, thereby preferred to live in the city even after coronation as King, rather moving to Thrissur. Thus for his benefit, a royal office was constructed in 1865. Initially it started off as royal office, court building and offices of royal secretaries and nobles of the court, soon more and more structures were added to main structure to various purposes. Soon, an imperial residence building was also constructed for the residence of the King and his immediate family though other members of Cochin Royal family had their own allocated bungalows and official residences. The palace was handed over to the Government of Kerala by the Cochin Royal Family and in 1980, the palace was taken over by the Department of Archaeology and later converted into a museum. It was opened to the public in 1986. The museum and its campus is one among the popular shooting sites for the Malayalam film industry. The Horse cart gallery and Weapons gallery houses a lot of historical artifacts. The museum gardens are also some of the last green refuge of the town. A checklist of fauna found within the gardens, prepared by Sandeep Varma and Gokul Vinayan, has been published under the title 'The Fauna of Hill Palace'
Museum
The museum displays 14 categories of exhibits including Crown and ornaments of erst while Cochin royal family, paintings, sculptures in stone and marble, weapons, inscriptions, coins etc. The major share of attractions in this museum are contributed by the Cochin Royal Family with some exhibits from the Paliam Devaswom and the department of Archaeology. It has a gold crown embedded with precious stones and many valuable coins, ornaments, majestic beds and samples of epigraphy. The famous Malayalam movie Manichitrathazhu was shot here. The Palace is open to public everyday from 10 AM to 12.30 PM and 2 PM to 5 PM except Mondays and national/state holidays.
