Palace Museum, Sultan palace museum in Stone Town, Tanzania.
The Palace Museum is a three-story building in Stone Town that displays restored rooms filled with period furniture, thrones, and royal portraits. The collection documents the daily life and governance of the sultanate across different eras.
The building was constructed in 1890 as a royal residence for the sultan's family on the waterfront. Following the 1964 revolution, it was repurposed as the People's Palace and later converted into a museum in 1994.
The museum displays personal belongings of Princess Salme, who left Zanzibar for Hamburg in 1866, and shows how daily life unfolded within the royal household through furniture and objects. Visitors can sense the importance this family held in island society by observing the spaces where they lived and gathered.
The museum sits directly on Mizingani Road in the heart of Stone Town, easily reached on foot from the harbor area. It welcomes visitors daily, and you can spend a few hours exploring the different rooms and outdoor spaces.
The upper terrace offers views across the harbor and Zanzibar's waterfront, while the courtyard holds the graves of sultans. You can also find a vintage Austin Princess car on display, a relic from the post-revolution era.
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