Other sights in Kolkata (Calcutta)
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Kali Temple
Kalighat’s ancient Kali Temple is Kolkata’s holiest spot for Hindus and possibly the source of its name. Today’s version, a 1809 rebuild, has floral- and peacock-motif tiles that look more Victorian than Hindu. The double-stage roof is painted silver-grey with rainbow highlights. More interesting than the architecture are the jostling pilgrim queues that snake into the main hall to fling hibiscus flowers at a crowned, three-eyed Kali image. Priests loitering around the temple might whisk you to the front of the queue for an obligatory ‘donation’ (significant money). Behind the bell pavilion but still within the mandir complex, goats are ritually beheaded to honour the e…
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South Park Street Cemetery
Today Park St is one of Kolkata’s top commercial avenues. But when it was constructed in the 1760s, it was a simple causeway across uninhabited marshlands built to allow mourners to access the then-new South Park Street Cemetery. These days that cemetery remains a wonderful oasis of calm with mossy Raj-era graves – from rotundas to soaring pyramids – jostling for space in a lightly manicured jungle. To support the cemetery’s maintenance, a Rs30 donation is appropriate, or buy the guidebook (Rs100) from the gatekeeper.
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Railway Museum
Some 500m south, the open-air Railway Museum has a two-storey model of Howrah train station, several 19th-century steam locos and a toy-train ride (Rs10).
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Jain Temples
Three eye-catching Jain temples are grouped together two short blocks east of Raja Dinendra Rd (1.6km from Shyam Bazaar metro, two big blocks south of Aurobindo Sarani). The best known is 1867-built Sheetalnathji Jain Mandir. Its dazzling if somewhat unrefined pastiche of colourful mosaics, spires, columns and slivered figurines looks like a work of Gaudi. Directly south, the quieter Sri Sri Channa Probhuji Mandir has a fine gateway arch and plenty of greenery. The sedate 1810 Dadaji Jain Mandir has a central marble tomb-temple patterned with silver studs.
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Motherhouse
The Missionaries of Charity’s Motherhouse can be entered from the first alley north of Ripon St. Pilgrims arrive here regularly to pay homage at Mother Teresa’s large, sober tomb. Exhibits in a small adjacent museum include Teresa’s worn sandals and battered enamel dinner-bowl. Located upstairs, the ‘Mother’s room’ where she worked and slept from 1953 to 1997, is preserved in all its simplicity with a crown-of-thorns placed above her modest camp bed.
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Museum
Within Rabindra Bharati University, the comfortable 1784 family mansion of Rabindranath Tagore has become an extensive, shrine-like museum to India’s greatest modern poet. Even if his personal effects don’t inspire you, some of the well-chosen quotations might spark an interest in Tagore’s deeply universalist philosophy. There’s also a decent gallery of paintings by his family and contemporaries. The 1930 photo of Tagore taken with Einstein could win a ‘World’s Wildest Hair’ competition.
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Town Hall Building
The imposing colonnaded cube of the former Town Hall Building is where Kolkata Panorama introduces the city’s heritage through a lively collection of working models and interactive exhibits. It’s well designed, though historically selective, and many foreigners will struggle to appreciate fully the detailed sections on Bengali popular culture. The accompanying guide makes it awkward to ‘escape’ quickly.
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Raj Bhavan
Somewhat resembling the US White House, the grand Raj Bhavan was designed in 1799 along the lines of Kedleston Hall, the Derbyshire home of the Curzon family. By strange coincidence, one of its most famous masters a century later would be none other than Lord Curzon. Today the building is the official residence of the West Bengal governor and visitors may only peep through the ornate giant gates.
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Eden Gardens
The vast Ranji Stadium hosting Kolkata cricket matches is commonly nicknamed for the Eden Gardens that lie behind. Those gardens feature a lake and picturesque Burmese pagoda. Entry to the staium is usually limited to the south gate, but a small, more convenient north portal near Gate 12 of Ranji Stadium is occasionally open. Bring ID.
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St Mary’s High School
For many people, Mother Teresa (1910–97) was the living image of human sacrifice. Born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in then-Ottoman Üsküp (now Skopje in Macedonia), she joined the Irish Order of Loreto nuns and worked for over a decade teaching in Calcutta’s St Mary’s High School.
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Aquarium
Across the road from the Alipore Zoo is an aquarium that displays a few sorry tankfuls of fish. Get here by bus 230 from Rabindra Sadan.
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Aakriti Gallery
Strolling south from Park St, check out the latest modern art in the bright, calm Aakriti Gallery.
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