The new Aloyseum, a museum like no other

A granite post used to tether horses, large prayer books with huge fonts and many more artefacts on display at the new sprawling Aloyseum, make it an unconventional museum.

Former Rector of St Aloysius Institutions and Museum In-charge Fr Leo D’souza said that the renovated and relocated museum of St Aloysius College will be inaugurated on Saturday.

The museum began as early as 1913 when an Italian Jesuit Fr Chiapi donated 2,000 different types of minerals, herbarium and a collection of Roman coins.

For the third time, the museum was relocated from the ‘Red Building’ to its present location, in order to ensure easy access to visitors stopping to see the chapel paintings.

The new space was designed by William James of
Bengaluru and the display of the exhibits was executed by Museum Curator Kavitha of Mangaluru who has a Masters in Archaeology.

The museum displays curios from around the world like a Neolithic stone axe, pieces of the Berlin wall, articles from the Holy Land and a piece of rock from the Arctic.

The museum has interesting articles like the first generator which was installed in the college long before electric supply was introduced in Mangalore, a large number of radios, gramophones, a collection of skeletons including that of a whale and the first car in Mangaluru.

The museum has a large collection of domestic and agricultural utensils used in the bygone era.

“The present generation visiting the museum will get to know about their use,” Fr Leo adds with a smile.

The weapons section has cannons from Tipu Sultan’s time, spears and arrows from Abyssinia. All items are labelled in English and Kannada.

“We intend to install portable audio-visual guides with a detailed explanation of the artefacts,” he said and added that the museum would also have an audiovisual room.

“Our vision is to make the museum a user-friendly source of information and enjoyment for visitors. It is proposed to videograph the demonstration of use of the articles of local culture for presentation to the visitors” Fr Leo D’souza added.

A nominal entry fee would be collected from visitors, Rector of St Aloysius Institutions Fr Dionysius Vaz added.