Phichit Old City Park

By the Northern Chronicle, Phraya Kotabong Thewarat, a prince from Lop Buri, founded the town of Sa Luang around 1058, though archaeology does not confirm the date. Sa Luang appears in Sukhothai inscriptions alongside Song Khwae, and 'Phichit' is first recorded in 1478 as a third-class town in the Palatine Law on civil ranks. The name moved from Sa Luang to Okhaburi to Phichit. As the Nan River shifted and eroded the banks, the town moved to Ban Pak Thang in 1881 and to Ban Tha Luang — today's town — in 1884, leaving the old city behind.

The city had two brick walls with forts, ramparts, moats and gates; the north and south walls ran about 400 m and the west about 1.4 km. Today only mounds and broken brick remain. Test pits in 2000 found early-Ayutthaya occupation, and the walls resemble Phitsanulok's from King Borommatrailokanat's reign. Outside the north wall is Ko Si Mala, a moated mound that may have been a fort or watchtower.

Wat Mahathat stands in the middle of the old city, east of the former Nan channel. Its main chedi is a Sukhothai–Lanka bell on a triple lotus base, with a nine-bay vihara to the west, an ordination-hall base with a double row of boundary stones to the east, and twin ponds. It was registered as a monument in the Royal Gazette (vol. 52, p. 3692) on 8 March 1936. Prince Damrong inspected the old city in 1921; a bodhi tree toppled the chedi's top in 1938; and in 1952 the Fine Arts Department found Khmer-script tablets and a 4.5 × 14.2 cm gold plate naming Sa Luang and dated 1416. Excavations in 1991 found both Sukhothai and Ayutthaya building phases.

Chalawan Cave is just a dug shaft about 1 m wide, not a walk-in cave, fronted by statues of Krai Thong fighting the crocodile Chalawan and of Taphao Kaeo and Taphao Thong, from King Rama II's play Krai Thong, set in Phichit. The two-storey City Pillar Shrine has the pillar upstairs and a statue of the founder Phraya Kotabong below; two independent sources date the shrine to 1965 and the pillar to 16 April 1968; the 1977 date some give is when the arboretum was founded, not the shrine. At Songkran the founder's statue receives water blessings.

The park is open about 08:00–17:00 or 18:00 and free; allow 20–60 minutes. There is no public transport. The shady trees make mornings and late afternoons pleasant. Some signs are faded, food is scarce, and in late 2024 the shrine's power was cut over an administrative dispute, so facilities may be basic. The crocodile pond many visitors look for is at Bueng Si Fai, about 8 km away; The governor proposed reviving the old city in 1964, and it was developed as a park through the late 1960s and 1970s. Next door is Wat Nakhon Chum, where legend says Luang Pho Phet was first enshrined; now merged with Wat Khemaphirataram, it has a replica of Luang Pho Phet and of the ordination hall.