Chaotian Palace (朝天宫) is one of the best-preserved Ming-dynasty building complexes in Nanjing and now houses the Nanjing Municipal Museum. The palace served successive purposes over the centuries: imperial college, record storage, Confucian academy, and — during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom — a weapons foundry. The current buildings are Qing-dynasty reconstructions of earlier Ming structures.
The museum collection covers Nanjing's history from prehistoric times through the Republican era, with particularly strong material on the Six Dynasties period and Ming dynasty. The building complex itself — triple-gated entrance, tiered courtyards, traditional eaves — is worth visiting as architecture. The palace sits in an older part of the city away from the main tourist circuits, which keeps the crowds thinner.