History

Ubon Ratchathani National Museum is the first national museum of the city in the Northeast which founded in B.E. 2532 (1989) as a local cultural conservation, exhibition and dissemination center. In the past, the museum was established as Ubon Ratchathani city hall in B.E.2461 (1918) during a reign of Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha Vajiravudh Phra Mongkut Klao Chao Yu Hua or King Rama VI on a land that Krommaluang Sappasitdhiprasong, the diplomatic representative of King Rama V to Lao Kao County (administrative subdivisions covering most cities in the Northeast today), asked from Lady Chaingkam Chumpon Na Ayutthaya for public interest such as for building a government office.

Later, when there were more government offices, Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Office, thus, decided to build a new city hall at the Western side of Thoung Sri Mueang in B.E. 2511 (1968). Since then, government offices moved to the new city hall while the old one had been used as District Office of Ubon Ratchathani and small government offices.

In B.E. 2526 (1983), Ubon Ratchathani Provincial Office granted the old city hall to Fine Arts Department to renovate it as the province’s national museum. The Ministry of Education announced in the 103rd Royal Thai Government Gazette, Section 204 on November 20th, B.E. 2529 (1986) that Ubon Ratchathani National Museum be recognized as a “National Museum.” After the renovation and exhibition were finished, the Fine Arts Department invited Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to open the museum on June 30th, B.E. 2532 (1989).

Ubon Ratchathani National Museum is a single-storied built on bricks and bound by mortar paste, high from the ground; the roof is without gables and covered with roof tiles. The building plan has a rectangle shape facing the North and there is space between the columns; the window frames decorated with lotus patterns. There is also a big common room at the center of the building, surrounded with smaller rooms and corridors. Above the doors and on the column heads under eaves at the corridors are garnished with leaf-pattern wooden pieces while the space above that area was also ornamented and, at the center, there is a name attached said "Ubon Ratchathani City Hall." Above it all, a big garuda which symbolizes a city from the past is elegantly sitting on the top of the building.

Ubon Ratchathani National Museum is both architecturally valuable and is one of the vital monuments of Ubon Ratchathani. The Association of Siamese Architects (ASA) and Fine Arts Department honored the museum in B.E.2532 (1989) with the architectural conservation award and registered it as a historic site on October 10th, 2001.