The Hill Palace was built in 1865 by the Maharaja of Cochin and is now the largest archaeological museum in Kerala. The official capital of the Kingdom of Kochi was previously located in
Thrissur, and the royal office of the Maharaja as well as the court were all located in the city. However, as per ritualistic customs, the seat of the queen of Kochi (Penvazhithampuran) was seen as the royal capital, as the 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 the official capital. Further, the prince Rama Varma was raised in Tripunithura, thus he preferred to live in that city even after his coronation as king rather than moving to Thrissur. Thus, for his benefit, a royal office was constructed in 1865. It initially started off as a royal office, court building and offices of royal secretaries and nobles of the court, but soon an increasing number of structures were added to the main structure for various purposes. Soon, an imperial residence building was also constructed for the residence of the king and his immediate family, although other members of the 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 are popular shooting locations for the Malayalam film industry. The horse cart gallery and weapons gallery house numerous 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 ==