Sreepadam palace, T.V. Puram, Kerala thehinduimages.com |
Sreepadam palace, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala wikimapia.org |
The SW state of Kerala has many places of beauty and simplicity and the Kerala government long ago initiated serious steps to restore the old places back to old charm and glory and many of them are located in the fort area of the capital city, Thiruvananthapuram close to the famous Padmanabha temple, the richest temple in the world with gold jewelry, etc worth more than USD 25 billion.
Sreepadam Palace in Thiruvananthapuram .thehindu.com |
Above image: Housing heritage: A view of the Sreepadam Palace in the Fort Heritage Zone of Thiruvananthapuram city; it was renovated to establish a District Heritage Museum...............
Restoration work was on in full swing in June 2015 to set up a district heritage museum by the Department of Archaeology. Located in the Fort Heritage Zone designated by the state government the 255 year old structure is a naalukettu building called Sreepadam Palace (the name referrers to Lord Vishnu) Originally it was known as called the Sreepada Theerthakara Kandukondedathu Koyikkal, the palace. The style of this oldest palace is a blend of Indian as well as colonial styles.
Sreepadam Palace in Thiruvananthapuram .thehindu.com |
The renovation planned in 2 phases would involve the naalukettu portion and the Sreepadam pond, in the back of the building where there is a plan to open a numismatic museum. Traditional red-oxide and black-oxide flooring was done in the naalukettu part and in the court-yard respectively along with cleaning and restoration of teak-wood rafters. The pond was cleaned of trash and waste materials and its sidewalls were spruced up. The pond pays a vital role here and it is said the famous temple being closest to this site, holy water from the Sri kovil - sanctum percolates down to the pond.
An old chimney, being a vestige of the past era building was to be restored. It was used to burn waste papers from the Fort post office, which used to function from the palace premises. The post office of the fort area occupied a large part of the palace and later the Revenue Department acquired it. The renovation work included landscaping of the surroundings land including facilities for the visitors, besides a walkway.
The old palace pillars wooden steps leading to the first floor were taken care along with wooden windows which had faulty slats. they were made functional and could be tilted open and shut. Special restoration work included barrier-free, toilets and ramps for the for the differently abled persons. The Keralam was sprucing up the naalukettu part for the heritage museum. As for display racks, design, etc., that was undertaken by some other group.
Sreepadam palace East fort. archaeology.kerala.gov.in/ |
Granite heritage walkway. Padmanabha Swamy temple, deccanchronicle.com |