National Museum and Art Gallery

The National Museum occupies a Victorian building at the southern corner of the Savannah, opened in 1892 for a jubilee exhibition and holding the national collection since. Its range is broad rather than deep: the geology of the islands including the petroleum industry, Amerindian and colonial history, a gallery of Carnival costume and mas, and the art collection, whose core is the work of Michel-Jean Cazabon, the nineteenth-century Trinidadian painter. The building itself is part of the exhibit: it was put up for the Queen's jubilee exhibition of 1892 and has housed the collection ever since, which makes it one of the oldest purpose-built museums in the Caribbean.

What you actually see

• The Cazabon paintings - the collection of the nineteenth-century Trinidadian landscape painter.
• The Carnival gallery - costume, mas and the history of the festival.
• The petroleum displays - the geology and the industry that shaped the economy.
• The Amerindian collection - material from the islands' first peoples.

When to go

Year round; it is indoors and free. It closes on Mondays and public holidays. Mornings are quietest.

Honest expectations

Displays are dated and some galleries have been closed for long periods. Air conditioning is unreliable. Labelling is thin in places.

Nearby

Queen's Park Savannah is north, and Woodbrook is west.