Ministers' Building

The building is situated on 6.5 hectares (16 acres). It takes up an entire city block with Anawrahta Road to the north, Theinbyu Road to the east, Maha Bandoola Road to the south and Bo Aung Kyaw Street to the west. It is about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) South East of Yangon Central Railway Station and 600 metres (2,000 ft) east of the Sule Pagoda.[2][3][4]

Double spiral staircase of the Ministers' Building.

The Victorian-style building is made from red and yellow brick and constructed in a U-shape. Construction began in late 1889.[5] The central building was completed in 1902, while the complex's eastern and western wings were finished in 1905, at the cost of Rs.2.5 million.[6] Until 1972, the complex was called the Government Secretariat.[6]The British assigned Henry Hoyne-Fox, executive engineer at government’s public works the task of designing a sprawling new Victorian-style complex on 16 acres in Yangon.[1]

The building is a U-shape with the parliament building engulfed around. Due to the city's soft landscape, the Northern Wing of the building sunk a few meters underground. The Eastern and Western Wing was constructed and finished in 1905 to support it. The building originally consists of 16 cupolas but only eight of them survived. They are designed similar to the structure of the Crown of Queen Victoria.

The steel used in the support structure of the buildings was shipped in from Glasgow, Scotland and the original roof tiles were manufactured in France while the bricks and teak for the woodwork were locally sourced across Asia.[1]

The Parliament building was built in 1919. It is the very place where the independence of the country was handed over by the British on the 4th of January 1948. In-front of the building is the flagpole where the Union Jack was lowered and the flag of Independent Burma was raised. Just a few meters away from it is a brick monument memorizing the 7 fallen ministers of the 1947 assassination.(Ko Htwe and U Ohn Maung weren't ministers).

This building is where General Aung San, the father of modern Myanmar, spent his working days. On 19 July 1947, during a meeting of the Executive Council at the Ministers Building, Aung San and eight cabinet ministers were assassinated by a gang of armed paramilitaries. They had been sent by the former Prime Minister U Saw. This day is now commemorated as Burmese Martyrs' Day. The building is currently on the Yangon City Heritage List and restoration work is underway, parts of the complex are open to the public and there is an informative guided tour for a fee.

Two of the four towers on the corner buildings as well as the central dome collapsed during an earthquake in the 1930s.[7] The building has been vacant since the government was moved to the new capital Naypyidaw. The government debated whether to restore it and turn it into a hotel or museum. In 2011, amid national discussions on converting Yangon's colonial-era buildings to attract tourism, plans were made to convert the Ministers' Building into a museum, not a hotel.[8]

In February 2012, seven local companies and three foreign companies submitted a proposal to the Myanmar Investment Commission (MIC) to convert the Ministers' Building into a Martyrs' Museum, culture aspect and theme park.[9] Anawmar Art Group will operate the museum under the guidance of historians, curators and the Yangon Heritage Trust.[10] The room where the assassination had taken place had been used as a Buddhist shrine until 2016.[11]