Wat Suwannawat Temple (วัดสุวรรณาวาส)
Wat Suwannawat is located on the city island. This renovated temple ruin can be seen directly opposite Wat Racha Praditsathan temple on the north part of the island.
There is no record of this temple’s construction date or its role in history. It was built where some Royal elephant stables once stood. This monastery may have been used by the mahouts that worked with elephants in the stables.
Wat Suwannawat was restored by King Mongkut (King Rama IV) during the Ratanakosin period. Excavations at this site uncovered a Chinese-style image of Buddha preaching. It dates to the Ming Dynasty (16th-17th). The Chao Sam Phraya Museum presently has this marble image on display.
Wat Suwannawat was aligned to an east/west axis facing toward Khlong Pratu Khao Pluak (now buried). In situ is a small sermon hall with its front entrance wall still intact. Its basic foundation has been reconstructed by the Fine Arts Department, but the remaining ...
Port FC, one of Thailand’s oldest professional soccer clubs, was founded in 1967 as the Port Authority of Thailand Football Club by employees of the national port authority. The side quickly established itself as a domestic powerhouse, claiming multiple Kor Royal Cup titles in its early decades along with several Queen’s Cup triumphs. After competing in the Thai League from the mid-1990s, the club underwent name changes and ownership shifts before Nualphan Lamsam assumed control in 2015, restoring the Port FC name and steering the team back into consistent top flight contention and occasional continental competition.
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The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish sustained contact with the Kingdom of Ayutthaya, beginning in 1511 shortly after their capture of the vital entrepôt of Malacca. Aware that Malacca had been a distant vassal of Siam, the Portuguese commander Afonso de Albuquerque promptly dispatched an envoy, Duarte Fernandes, by Chinese junk up the Chao Phraya River to the Siamese court. King Ramathibodi II received the visitor cordially, accepted the fait accompli of the Portuguese conquest, and opened the way for further diplomatic exchanges. Subsequent missions followed: one led by António de Miranda de Azevedo in 1512 and another by Duarte Coelho in 1516–1518. These culminated in a formal treaty of friendship and commerce, the first such agreement between Siam and a European power.
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The ruin commonly identified as Wat Worapho, also known by its earlier name Wat Rakhang or the Monastery of the Bell, stands directly west of the former Grand Palace within the Ayutthaya Historical Park.
It forms part of a protected cluster of restored ruins that also includes Wat Worachettharam and Wat Lokaya Sutha, and it is most easily reached from the western side of Khlong Tho. The site occupies a large area that once stood on the north bank of Khlong Fang and the west bank of Khlong Pak Tho, with traces of a surrounding moat still visible in places though partially obscured by later road construction.
The precise date of the monastery’s founding remains uncertain, yet it clearly predates 1600. The Royal Chronicles first record it in connection with the ordination of Prince Si Sin around 1602. While living as a high-ranking monk there under the title Phra Phimontham Anantapricha, the prince gained renown as a Buddhist scholar deeply versed in the scriptures and royal manuals. His scholarly ...
