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Once a showpiece of the British Empire, Kolkata has managed to preserve some of the extravagance of its grand old colonial residences, while steadily making a name for itself as the intellectual and cultural capital of India.
1/tab.galleryImage.size}Once the First City of the British Raj, Kolkata wears its colonial past on its sleeve at colonial sites such as the Victoria Memorial, designed to commemorate Queen Victoria’s demise
2/tab.galleryImage.size}Kolkata’s Grand Dalhousie Square is one of the best remnants of British colonial architecture in the world outside of the UK
3/tab.galleryImage.size}Visit Kolkata’s Mullik Ghat Flower Market beside the Hooghly River for an explosion of colourful chaos
4/tab.galleryImage.size}Spanning the River Hooghly, the Howrah Bridge is the third longest cantilever bridge in the world and was constructed without the use of any nuts and bolts
5/tab.galleryImage.size}Wander around Kumortuli, Kolkata’s pottery district, to see craftsmen and artists creating clay models of Hindu gods and goddesses
6/tab.galleryImage.size}Trek through the UNESCO World Heritage Sundarban National Park to see the world’s largest mangrove belt, keeping an eye out for salt-water crocodiles and Royal Bengal tigers
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Once the First City of the British Raj, Kolkata wears its colonial past on its sleeve at colonial sites such as the Victoria Memorial, designed to commemorate Queen Victoria’s demise
2/6
Kolkata’s Grand Dalhousie Square is one of the best remnants of British colonial architecture in the world outside of the UK
3/6
Visit Kolkata’s Mullik Ghat Flower Market beside the Hooghly River for an explosion of colourful chaos
4/6
Spanning the River Hooghly, the Howrah Bridge is the third longest cantilever bridge in the world and was constructed without the use of any nuts and bolts
5/6
Wander around Kumortuli, Kolkata’s pottery district, to see craftsmen and artists creating clay models of Hindu gods and goddesses
6/6
Trek through the UNESCO World Heritage Sundarban National Park to see the world’s largest mangrove belt, keeping an eye out for salt-water crocodiles and Royal Bengal tigers
Things to do
We've chosen the must-see highlights of this fantastic city.
We've chosen the must-see highlights of this fantastic city.
See
Girish Bhavan
The former home of poet and playwright Girish Chandra Ghosh has been locked up for decades by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which once a year gives it an exterior paint job, renewing the original red and yellow. Historians want to get into the mansion as no one knows what’s beyond the padlocked door. Some newspapers have speculated that there may be important relics still stored there, but that is only speculation until access is granted.
Location
Girish Avenue, Bagbazar, Kolkata
See
Raj Bhavan
Loosely based on Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, this domed general post office (1868) evokes Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London and the former Government House. The three-storey building consists of large halls with arched corridors that are surrounded by acres of gardens. Imposing lion figures stand atop tall elaborately designed wrought iron gates upon entrance.
A branch of the highly influential Tagore family, which included the poet Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature, built this guest house modelled after Windsor Castle. Sadly, the castle never made it to the heritage-buildings list, due to unsympathetic renovations. However, it has become a shrine-like museum commemorating the great modern poet of India.
Location
1686 Lashkrhat, Tagore Park (Block -1), Naskar Hat, Kasba, Kolkata
The Marble Palace in Chorbagan district was built in 1835 by Raja Rajendra Mullick Bahadur, who spared no expense in what has been described as "audaciously vulgar" magnificence. The family still lives in its great halls paved with varicoloured Italian marble and chock-a-block with collections of oversized porcelain vases, chandeliers loaded with Venetian crystals, ormolu on nearly every surface, giant mirrors now foxed from the climate, a collection of statues of Queen Victoria and hundreds of paintings, some purporting to be the work of Titian and Rubens. In the surrounding gardens, a visitor could trip over statues of sweetly napping lions, roaring lions and other mythological figures. The Marble Palace, inside and out, is strictly off limits to photographers.
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