Himachal State Museum

Recently explored the Himachal State Museum and it exceeded expectations. The extensive collection, featuring ancient sculptures, coins, paintings, and photographs from across the state and country, showcases the rich history of Himachal Pradesh. The library, boasting 1,000 books and manuscripts, is a haven for knowledge seekers. The sculpture gallery with metal, wooden, and stone sculptures is a visual delight.

The museum's significance extends beyond artifacts; it's a journey through Himachal's cultural tapestry. Noteworthy highlights include the Indian Army's visitors' book and a captivating timeline display. A perfect blend of art and history, it's a must-visit for anyone touring Shimla.

The serene surroundings, accentuated by sprawling lawns, enhance the museum experience. Open every day from 10 a.m. To 5 p.m. (closed on Mondays & public holidays), the entrance fee is Rs. 50.

In summary, the Himachal State Museum offers a captivating glimpse into the region's heritage, making it an enriching and worthwhile destination for art lovers and history enthusiasts alike. A gem nestled in Shimla, not to be missed.

Must visit for people who wish to know about Himachal’s art, culture, history, and more interested stuff.

Quiet big museum.i was tired of walking but the art pieces, the figurines, the paintings, the collection was worth watching

If you are in Shimla and like historical or ancient collection then don't miss the place to visit its worth visiting here you can see coin history, cultural history, Weapon history and many more including one saperate dedicated part for Army history.
They charge 50 rs per pax for indian and very near to advance research centre best part you can cover on same day if you are the way to Advance research centre (President house).
Atleast 1 hr required to cover this place. I must don't forget to visit this.

One of the popular tourist places to visit in Shimla, Himachal State Museum protects the history of the northern state and gives you a chance to understand the cultural heritage of a particular time period. It is an ideal base for art lovers and a must-visit spot for experience seekers and connoisseurs.

Positioned on the top of the hill, the museum offers a calm and peaceful setting to enjoy the serene surroundings at its backdrop. Here you can take a short stroll in the lush green garden or capture the picture of some interesting artifacts. There is also a fine collection for Indian miniatures for tourists’ interests.

The entry fee to visit Himachal State Museum in Shimla is INR 20 per person for Indians and INR 100 per person for foreigners. It is open for its tourists from 10 am to 5 pm on all days except Monday.

The museum is good with galleries of sculpture, display info about himachal before pre historic times and few petroglyphs and a boy skeleton, small collection of ancient coins or numistamatics, good collection of miniature paintings from 18th to 19th centuries, gallery dedicated to Indian army and few unimpressive modern paintings. The sculpture gallery is interesting to see the bhadramukha shiva with three heads normally carved on sanctum towers, excellent carving of garuda carrying vishnu and lakshmi, unique facial expression of mahisasura mardini, partially damaged excellent carvings of asta dikpalas, mutilated face of simha vahini durga, mutilated face of 6th century unique standing vishnu appears like a common man, mutilated faces of Kubera named as padma nidhi and shanka nidhi, 11th century lively amorous couple, mutilated face of 12th century rudra shiva, 13th century chola period bhu devi, unique 15th century marble saraswathi from gujarat and lively lakshana devi carving from modern chamba is worth visiting to feel the vanishing stone art.

A good place to visit. Has many sections. Kids wont find it interesting except few sections. There is a nice garden to sit. You can cover this with other places in a one day tour. Dont plan to walk come by vehicle. This place is for people who have interest in history and archaeology. There is a separate fees if u want to take pictures with mobile. We went in month of July

It is situated at the height where without personal convenience not possible to visit, specially for kids and senior citizen.

This museum is a great place for history buffs, art lovers and even fauji lovers. To satisfy your curiosity fully, minimum of 2 hrs is needed to explore the 3 floors of the museum. The entry fee is ₹50.
If going via a cab/taxi. Ask the driver to take you up the slope till the entrance of the museum. If not then, you are in for a mild trek up the road:)

Nice place to be with family and friends. You get to see paintings, sculptures and local culture.
For photography you need to buy separate ticket

My Experience with this Museum is absolutely awesome and one thing I hate too much that this Museum is placed at top area because due to Himachal land persentage but overall I am absolutely happy with this Museum and ticket price is 50 and it is always value for money and best tourist place in shimla.

Entry fee is Rs 50 for Indians. Himachal Pradesh state Measum is a good place for those who like rock art and outfit of Himachal, although there is not a lot of stuff here but there is a little thing which is good enough. Some things like Himachali Miniature Paintings, Sculptures here that can be seen quite a good glimpse, the rest of the campus here is also very beautiful in which a beautiful statue of Buddha touches the ground and more sculptures are placed around it.
However, the building which is there is not very high and is like a maze in which one can easily move from one section to another.

Such an amazing presentation and information about state, culture and climate. Loved it. Himachal Pradesh is beautiful and people are humble.

This will take roughly one hour to see all the three floors. There is decent assortment of items. It's mostly sculptures on the first floor, collections and paintings on the second floor. Third floor is all about military. Photography charges are separate. Ticket for adult was Rs 50. Outside garden is decent and will give you a good view of the city. It's built on a high point on the mountain with very narrow and steep roads. Coming by foot is too tough and steep. Hire a small car to reach here. Parking for your car is available with limited spots.

Amazed by this place they just do not have artifact's from Himachal but from all over the India if you're visiting Shimla it's a must go place. I'm adding 2 photos for your reference

Incredible place. It do contain things from the time of Harappan culture as well as from various centuries. Miniature paintings and painting section is just awesome. I recommend all to visit this place at least once for sure.

This is the most beautiful place you need to visit with wonderful knowledge of Himachal and curators are super talented.

One of best place to visit.
Would recommend everyone to go thier and look at the historical ethics and dynasty of Himachal Pradesh

Place is worth visiting.
People are awesome.
Nice, cool & calm.
Lovely place to know our heritage.

I loved it

Very beautiful museum. Everyone should visit this place. You will get to know our rich culture, history and lot more.

It's very nice place for visit,
It's very interesting fir history students and kids for learning about india,
charge for entry 50 ₹ and charge for camera 100₹
Simply i love it

The reason to visit this Museum was to witness for the beauty, art & craft gallery, sculpture gallery, cultural gallery, jewellery gallery, archeology, coins hierarchy, about Gandhi ji's life, wall painting, sikh gallery, wood carving, landscape, history, civilisation, army gallery, freedom movement gallery, growth curve of any place, truth of nature, laws of harmony, development with modern aspect. Its a place of ideas, realisation etc etc. Filled with great emotional sentiments for all those presentations.
I suggest all the tourists to must visit, spend most of the day time, realise our past history, and come out with a determination of change.

One of the popular tourist places in shimla, Himachal State Museum protects the history of the northern state and gives you a chance to understand the cultural heritage of a particular time period. It is an ideal base for art lovers and a must-visit spot for experience seekers and connoisseurs. Ticket price for Indian visitor is INR 50.

Great place. If you are in Shimla, you must visit this museum. Old photos and maps are impressive. 3D photos with spot lights are awesome. The army divisions like amry, navi and air defence are presented very well. There are lots of details with vehicle/boat/airplane/helicopter models and dress code of each division with name plates as well.

It's an amazing museum. Well maintained. If you like artistic things and to know about history. You will love this place. If you are going there you should have atleast 2-3 hours to spare to fully enjoy the museum.

A must visit place for anyone visiting Shimla. One of the best museums I've been to, Has has a lots of Informative Galleries of Different Kinds like Army Gallery, Art Gallery, Numismatic Gallery, Statue Gallery etc.

Himachal State Museum Shimla is housed in an old Victorian mansion ‘Inverarm’ which was carefully altered to adapt it to the museum.

Inverarm was a small mud roofed house in the early 1860 and belonged to General Innes, which later owned by the ruler of Sirmour and later taken over by the Imperial Government. It was then enlarged, and became for many years the private residence of Lord William Beresford, Military Secretary to the Viceroy.

After Lord William Beresford left India it was occupied for some years by General Sir Edwin Collen, and next by Sir Edward Law, financial Member of the Council.

Lately it had been the temporary home of Sir Sankaran Nair, and Sir Mohamed Shah and other Government officers.

In 1973 the building was transferred to open the Himachal State Museum and on 26th January, 1974 museum was inaugurated by the then Governor S. Chakravarti.

It looks small but turns out to be quite big with lots and lots of rooms containing different archeological, historical pieces. There's a small gallery too. A pleasant surprise of entire rooms dedicated to the history of Indian independence and military including the army, navy and air force. The outside courtyard/garden is nice and big as well, and provides quite a view of the mountains.

Nice place to visit. They will show you only 4 or 5 important rooms only. But these rooms are historic. You will definitely enjoy visiting here. If you have some knowledge of Indian history then it would be a great place to visit. Now this building is converted into Indian Institute of Advanced Study.

5 out of 5. The name goes for its objectives. Nice place to visit in. You can know Himachali cultures, religions, norms, dresses and etc.

Himachal State Museum
If you are in Shimla and have not visited H. P. State Museum, you have missed something. There is large collection of art, culture, architecture, sculptures and paintings in this government run museum.
A must visit place for everyone.

Himachal state museum its near vidhan sabha and accessible by foot as well as by taxi of hrtc which will take 20 rs for you from mall road to state museum, its on the way to presidential house or they called it institute of advance studies, there is main sign board which say himachal state museum but after that board there is alsmost 500 m steap track after reaching museum u can see a nice view of city. Ticket for entry is 40 rs per person. Nice museum with culture of hilly area prople, old time currency of india, photo graphes, army museum which is for all martyrs of our indian army very nice to visit took somewhere around 1 hour to explore it completely.

A good place for history of the Himachal Pradesh region
But the approach road is extremely narrow so do carefully in a small car
The interior is neat and clean and well organized

The Shimla state museum also known as the Himachal state museum and library is located on Mount Pleasant and is one of the most charming Shimla points of interest. The sprawling lawns and the brilliant British architecture makes this place totally worthwhile. The museum amazingly displays the glorious past of the state with its rich culture and heritage. They have an incredible collection of different artifacts, paintings, sculptures, handicrafts and a lot more which they have been preserving since ages.

It is best place to know about Himachal Pradesh. Every single detail is to be find Amazing place to visit. It possesses a rich collection of sculptures, miniature paintings, woodcarvings, coins, jewellery, textile and other archaeological things.

Well maintained place with nice collection
Positioned on the top of the hill, the museum offers a calm and peaceful setting to enjoy the serene surroundings.
Entry fee: Rs. 20 (for Indians) Rs. 100 (for foreigners). Camera Fee: Rs.  50 for Indians
Rs.  100 for Foreigners; Rs. 100 for Research Scholars; Rs.  1500 for Videography (with special permission)
The Himachal State Museum Shimla is closed on Monday and Public Holidays. On working days, it is open from 10am to 5pm.

A must visit section if you visit shimla. Stone age & pre historic things like coins, dresses are stored. Buddha, Gandhi, and The best thing is about our defense Forces. It tell lit of things about Himachal! The contribution of state to the history

Omg It was awesome.everything in there was amazing. I thought it is going to be boring there cause I dont like museum that much.it it was different though photography wasn't allowed there.you must have at least "one hour" to enjoy this place

State Museum is located 2.5 km west of the Scandal Point on the Inverarm Hill. The history of the building dates back to the colonial times when it was the private residence of Lord William Beresford. He was the Military Secretary to the then Viceroy of India, Lord William Bentinck. When he left India, the mansion was inhabited by Sir Edwin Collan and thereafter by Sir Edward Law. After independence, it served as the residence of Indian Government officials. It was transformed into a museum on January 26,1974 with the sole aim of collecting and preserving the historical, artistic and archaeological items of the Himachal Pradesh State.

The museum boasts of having a grand collection of ancient historical sculptures, coins, paintings and photographs collected from all over the state and the country. It also houses a library which has around 10,000 books, journals and magazines. Sculpture gallery has metal, wooden and stone sculptures. In the painting section, Pahari and Rajasthani Miniature Painting, religious paintings, contemporary paintings and Mughal paintings have been put on display. Other than these rare artifacts, the museum also has a unique collection of Himachali dolls. Art and history lovers must visit the museum while touring Shimla.
Before using the house for constructing the state museum, it served as a private residence Lord William Beresford, who was the military secretary of the then Viceroy, Lord William Bentick. After he left the country and his post, the house was inherited by Sir Edwin Collan and the next owner was Sir Edward Law, who was a prominent member of the Finance Council. After independence, the house was lived in by various ranks of government officials and finally, it went on to house the Shimla State Museum.

The museum always supports different forms of publicity. Recently, different activities like All India Art Expo took place in the year 2011, workshops, seminars, competitions, shows and lectures are also arranged.

The museum also has a library, which stores manuscripts and books on history and archeology.

The collection of Mughal and Rajasthani paintings is world renowned here.

There are different sections, which are called galleries, like Archeology gallery, Photographs gallery, wood carving gallery, Bronze gallery, pre historic gallery, miniature Pahari paintings gallery and many more.

At present, the museum holds around 9000 items, paintings and objects in all.

Visiting Hours:  10 a.m. To 5 p.m.

Open all days. (Close on Monday & Public Holidays)

Entrance Fee:

For Indians: Rs. 10

Foreign Tourists: Rs. 50

Truly wonderful for all the variety of things from not just Himachal but also other places. Genuine visitors need to give 4 to 5 hours to full appreciate everything. The old photographs from the British era are wonderful and the sections covering various aspects of Himachali culture are fantastically curated. Would have loved better guidance to negotiate the rooms though! Seems like a maze to most.

This place is fabulous. The great artifacts and historical art is preserved here. The tour was extraordinary. The museum staff is extremely friendly. I thoroughly loved being there. The library is the must watch. The museum in its entirety is exceptional.

Can spend a lot of time inside. The exhibits range from historic coin collection to the modern day paintings. There is also an exhibit showing the war pics

Nice maintained, near railway station but u have to reach 1 level up as the map will show the road and we may think it is near the rly stn but in actual we have to go 1 level up, reach mall road and from there we can reach the museum

Ultimate place, people visiting to shimla should visit this place atleast once. This place holds alot of history, you can even find great paintings to buy over here. Ancient artefacts and ruins of old temples can be seen here. They also have old currency for different periods and even have displayed traditional dresses from different parts of Himachal Pradesh.

Great place must visit when in shimla
Old monuments, sculptures, old currency, beautiful paintings, an area dedicated to India army old aritilary and detailed history
Best of heritage preserved
Would highly recommended a visit when in shimla!

The museum can be better but still worth a visit. The building itself is nice and the views are wonderful too

Monuments of 8th, 9th century are present. Well managed area. Old coins, old culture dresses, utensils used in past, historical preserved documents, Gandhi g own written letters are kept here. There is area kept for Army and its weapons. One can spent 1 hour to view all of them.

The best museum that I've ever visited. You can take an overview of whole shimla from there. In this museum there is a place of Indian Armed forces related section where you live the glorious heritage of this great nation

A big museum. There are many things to see.different types of art and craft.many other things about himchal culture.different types of antique pieces.laughing mirrors your kids will enjoy and much more

A bit boring for people who are not interested in history, otherwise brilliant collection. Must visit in shimla.
Checkout if you are interested in art also.
Various art piece and painting available at sale and for exhibition.

Needs good 4-5 hours for a proper tour. What a nice building. Wood, cream, white and blue themed. Small doors/openings leading from one section to another, only for u to realize there are further such openings in the next room. Do visit when in Shimla. Well maintained.

Fantastic place to visit. Beautiful structure and the museum has various collection of art and sculpture. It has also a room for military museum and which ia really good and well described about military history.

A large museum in an impressive English style house. It is well signed but if you are walking is a very steep walk up to it. (If you walk to the huge hill top Radio India tower that is so prominent in Shimla you will get there. The tower is right over the top of the building.)

The entry fee is modest (higher for international visitors but still modest) and there is a separate fee to take a camera inside. There is no cafe attached and only a very small and limited gift shop. (A pity as some prints of the art work would sell well.)

Inside there are extensive exhibits but it is not all local to Himachal Pradesh as I'd expected. Some is, including the military and social exhibits about the forming of the state, but many of the other displays are from around India.

The displays include sculpture and pottery, artifacts, fashion, coins, military history, art and paintings and much more. You can get lost in there for quite a while. There are also pleasant gardens and the view from the entrance way across Shimla is spectacular. (You'll see it on the way out.)