At long last, Bastion Bungalow to house a unique museum

Work on ₹3.5-crore project likely to begin next month

The upcoming museum at the Bastion Bungalow will be a chronicle of Kochi, mostly based on available documents and archives on business and governance during the colonial period.

A museum at the roughly 350-year-old Bastion Bungalow in Fort Kochi may finally see the light of day after several false starts and a delay spanning years.

A detailed project report (DPR) was recently prepared by a Delhi-based agency at the behest of Kerala Museum, the nodal agency appointed by the government to set up district heritage museums.

“Tenders have been invited to implement the project worth ₹3.5 crore and work is likely to begin next month. Funds have already been allotted,” said R. Chandran Pillai, executive director, Kerala Museum.

The idea is for the building to house a chronicle of Kochi, mostly based on available documents and archives on business and governance during the colonial period. “Twelve foreign museums and the records in their possession have been identified. Expenses for procuring the documents are yet to be calculated,” Mr. Pillai said. It will be a thematic, interactive museum, for which the DPR took over a year to be prepared.

Confusion

The renovated bungalow was opened to the public in 2016 and shut again over a confusion about the artefacts to be displayed and shortage of funds.

“The Hortus Malabaricus Gallery and a few artefacts and swords were brought from the Hill Palace museum and displayed here. But there was a confusion over whether these were apt for display in the bungalow. Since the Fort Kochi area receives a large footfall of tourists, a unique display was sought,” said a museum guide at the bungalow.

The artefacts from the Hill Palace museum remain in the bungalow and are likely to be returned.

Though the State Archaeology Department had declared the bungalow a protected monument, the department had no role to play any more, said an official of the department. “Generators and cameras installed when the museum was opened earlier were destroyed, and moss and weeds have begun to grow on the tiled roof. But it is now the responsibility of Kerala Museum, which has delayed the work,” the official said.

The bungalow is said to be a section of the Dutch fort built on the remnants of the Portuguese Fort Emmanuel after the Dutch stormed the Portuguese settlement in Kochi. It was later taken over by the British.