Puducherry Museum

Opened in 1983, the Puducherry Museum occupies a colonial building that served first as a jail and afterwards as government offices. Its collection is split into themed sections: French India galleries, archaeology, bronzes, sculpture, arms, geology, arts and crafts, and a display of old vehicles. The bronze gallery holds one of the biggest groups of Chola bronze figures in the country.

The archaeology rooms show stones, jewellery, coins and statues that the Archaeological Survey of India dug up at Arikamedu, evidence of the port's trade with Roman merchants in the first and second centuries AD. Other exhibits include the bed of Governor Dupleix, French furniture, church relics, fossils, coin collections, swords and armour, local textiles and handicrafts, and a section devoted to the philosopher Sri Aurobindo with personal items and photographs.