MANGALURU: Missionaries have made this city truly global through their thinking and their work, and the institutions they have founded make every Mangalurean proud.
One of their contributions is St Aloysius College, just a few years from its 150th year. Among the many attractions on its sprawling campus is an extraordinary museum. It is called Aloyseum.
The priests’ love for conservation of heritage took shape in 1913. Many exhibits, such as the Roman coins and commemorative medals, were brought in by Fr Chiappi from Italy.
“Some were gifts from Collegio Vieta of Italy. The Jesuits, especially the earlier expatriates, had been travelling widely and collecting antiques and artefacts which they added to the collection,” recalls Gopal Gowda, in-charge curator of Aloyseum.
In 1927, Fr Prosperio, Rector, provided a hall for the museum. In 1944, the museum was shifted to Chettur’s Bungalow at the eastern end to the campus. Incidentally, the starting of natural science courses in the college in 1943 gave a boost to the museum.
In 1947, it shifted again – this time to English Hall. In 1955, when Fr Albert Saldanha was the Rector, he got the museum rearranged in New Extension.
Today, after 103 years, Aloyseum is housed in proper museum settings with help from St Aloysius College. It has more than 1,000 exhibits tastefully arranged and restored.
Aloyseum has a prized exhibit—the very first car that came to Mangaluru, a French-made De Dion-Bouton. It was imported from Paris by PFX Saldanha of Highland Coffee Works in 1906. It was sparingly used as the fuel — petrol — had to be brought into Mangaluru from Madras (Chennai). Saldanha had gladly lent it to the entourage of Sir Arthur Lawley, Governor of Madras, when he came to visit Mangaluru with his family. Though Lawley had a Daimler, it was not big enough for his family to go touring around Mangaluru in 1907.
The car was gifted to the museum by the family of Saldanha in 1956, but the family had given away the engine as a gift to a coffee planter in 1946. Had the engine been intact, it is likely the Jesuits would have kept it in running condition.
In 2013, its centenary year, Aloyseum was renovated with sparkling interiors and lighting for the exhibits.
The Mangalore of yore is seen in the first electric generator installed in the city in 1930, while the vestments of priests from the city date back to 1878.