National Museum and Art Gallery

The National Museum occupies a Victorian building at the southern corner of the Savannah, opened in 1892 as the Royal Victoria Institute and holding the national collection since, some 10,000 items across seven main galleries. 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, in the Victorian colonial style of the British West Indies, is part of the exhibit.

What's there

• 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.

Practical notes

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.

Key facts