History

Mahaweerawong National Museum, a one-storey building of Applied Thai Style, is situated at the back of Nakhon Ratchasima-King Rama IX National Library located inside Sutthajinda Temple’s area on Ratchadamnoen Street outside the west moat of Naimuang Sub-district, Muang District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province.

In 1927 (2470 B.E.), Prince Mahaweerawong (Uan Tisuso), former abbot of Sutthajinda Temple, donated a collection of antiques and artifacts to the Fine Arts Department in order for further studies, exhibitions, and distributing the knowledge about national art and cultural heritage. This could facilitate the studies on the prosperity of the country from the past to present as indicated in Prince Mahaweerawong’s speech that “museum keeps written evidences while library presents written characters, so intellectual children inevitably rely on studying written evidences and characters.”

As a result, the Fine Arts Department started constructing the museum in 1954 (2497 B.E.) which was then open for public audience on 24 June in the same year. The museum was formally entitled “Mahaweerawong National Museum” as stated in the Royal Thai Government Gazette No. 178, Section 94, on 14 November 1961 (2504 B.E.) to honour Prince Mahaweerawong as the founder.