Work in progress to turn former court house into history museum |11 July 2014

The former Supreme Court building in Victoria will become the National History Museum after renovation work on it is completed.

The surrounding courtyard and buildings associated with the former Supreme Court will also be demolished and will see the emergence of historical buildings of Seychelles coming back.

This was said by the Minister for Tourism and Culture Alain St Ange during an inspection tour of the former Supreme Court building in Victoria yesterday.
The minister was accompanied by a delegation concerned with the project.

“We will bring back the building to its original state and the Seychelles National History Museum will move in,” Minister St Ange said, adding that the new building should be completed within eight months.

“The surroundings of the new building will afterwards see the construction of a series of façade and old style buildings that will take us back to what we had in Seychelles. This will be the second phase of the whole project. It means part of the museum will also see historical buildings of Seychelles coming back to life,” said Minister St Ange.

“If we value our past, we put it in a place where we give it credit,” he said.

The minister said it is also in the plans to have a square there, with for example cafeteria, food and souvenir outlets, a place where people can sit, appreciate Victoria by day and night and on weekends.

He said this is aimed at making the new site a real museum but also with commercial activities in the current car park.

“These frontages will be used by different businesses to enable us to have an income to manage the place financially,” said Minister St Ange.

Minister St Ange noted that the former Supreme Court building itself is a very solid structure, compared to its new additions like the steps and balustrades which are not.

The cast iron balustrades, which are very old indeed, are being remoulded and a place in Sri Lanka has been identified for the work, which is done by hand.
“We are trying to bring back the building as precisely as possible back to its original style,” said Glenny Savy who also forms part of people working on the project.