Sights in Kolkata (Calcutta)
-
A
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…
reviewed
-
The Maidan
After the 'Black Hole' fiasco, a moated 'second' Fort William (closed to public) was constructed in octagonal, Vaubanesque form (1758). The whole village of Gobindapur was flattened to give the new fort's cannons a clear line of fire. Though sad for then-residents, this created the Maidan pronounced 'moi-dan') a vast 3km-long park that is today as fundamental to Kolkata as Central Park is to New York City.
Fort William remains hidden within a walled military zone but for an amusingly far-fetched tale of someone who managed to get in, read Simon Winchester's Calcutta.
reviewed
-
B
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.
reviewed
-
C
Marble Palace
This grand 1853 mansion is indulgently overstuffed with statues, Victoriana, Belgian glassware and fine paintings – there’s even a reputedly original Rubens. The music room is lavishly floored with marble inlay but much of the antique furniture remains haphazardly draped in torn old dust-sheets. It’s an odd place where admission is technically free, but guards, guides and even the toilet monitor all expect tips. Before visiting you need to get a permission note from either West Bengal Tourism or India Tourism.
reviewed
-
Kumartuli
This fascinating district is named for the kumar (sculptors) who fashion giant puja effigies of the gods, eventually to be ritually immersed in the holy Hooghly. Different workshops in lanes off Rabindra Sarani specialise in certain body parts, creating the straw frames, adding clay coatings or painting the divine features with brilliant colours. Kumar workshops are busiest for the two months before the October/November Durga Puja festival.
reviewed
-
D
St John’s Church
More colonnades buttress the stone-spired 1787 St John’s Church. The small, portrait-draped room on the right as you enter was once used as an office by Warren Hastings, Bengal’s first British governor-general.
reviewed
-
E
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).
reviewed
-
F
CIMA
For cutting-edge contemporary Bengali art visit CIMA a well-lit, six-room gallery with an eclectic giftshop.
reviewed
-
Kolkata University
College St is the heartland of Kolkata's vibrant academic universe.
reviewed
-
Chinatown
Less than 500m south of Old China Bazar lie the scanty remnants of Kolkata's ragged little Chinatown. Most Chinese have since moved away, and at first glance the area looks pretty unappealing. But if you wander up Damzen Lane you'll find two Chinese Temples (one now used as a local school) and a somewhat decrepit gateway - built big enough for the family's domestic elephants. Just off the main road Chhatawali Gali (Lushun Sarani), notice the sad ruins of the once-grand 1924 Nangking Restaurant.
To get a closer look you'll pass an extensive shoulder-high garbage heap. But it's more than garbage. At closer inspection you'll see that Kolkata street-folk have burrowed homes r…
reviewed
Advertisement
-
G
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.
reviewed
-
H
Babu Ghat
The Hooghly might look unappealingly murky, but it's holy to Hindu Kolkatans whose main festivals often involve plunging divine puja images into its waters. The riverside ghats are interesting any morning or evening when die-hard devotees bathe and make offerings.
A photogenic if distinctly seedy vantage point is Babu Ghat, hidden behind a grubby, pseudo-Greek gateway near Eden Gardens. Here the votive floating candles simply add to the spectacle of colourful sunsets viewed through the impressively elegant Vidyasagar Setu suspension bridge.
reviewed
-
I
Indian Museum
Kolkata’s old-fashioned main museum fills a glorious colonnaded palace around a central lawn. Extensive exhibits include fabulous 1000-year-old Hindu sculptures, lumpy minerals, a whole dangling whale skeleton and endless pinned insects. Gag at the pickled human embryos (gallery 19), notice the surreal Glyptodon dinosaur-armadillo (gallery 11) and don’t miss the impressive life-size reproduction of the 2nd-century BC Barhut Gateway. No bags are allowed inside. Handbags can be checked in at the entrance but don’t arrive with a backpack.
reviewed
-
J
Botanical Gardens
Founded in 1786, the 109-hectare Botanical Gardens played an important role in cultivating tea long before it became a household commodity. Today there’s a cactus house, palm collection, river-overlook and a boating-lake with splendid Giant Amazon Lily pads but the biggest draw is a 250-year-old banyan tree, 140m across. It’s reputedly the world’s largest but the central trunk rotted away in the 1920s leaving a curious ‘forest’ of cross-branches and linked aerial roots that have become virtual trees of their own.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
K
Rabindra Bharati Museum
Epitomising the cultural spirit of Kolkata was the brilliant poet, novelist, playwright and artist Rabindranath Tagore, who took India to the world. India's greatest modern poet and a passionate nationalist, he penned what would become the lyrics for India's national anthem.
Tagore also became Asia's first Nobel prizewinner for literature. The rambling complex of Tagore House is now a centre for Indian dance, drama and music. North of BBD Bagh, it houses an impressive museum and university for fine arts.
reviewed
-
L
Rabrindra Sarovar
Around dawn, middle-class Kolkatans arrive en masse to exercise in the parkland surrounding Rabrindra Sarovar a lake that prettily reflects the hazy sunrise. As well as jogging, rowing and meditation, some people form circles to do group-yoga routines culminating in ho-ho ha-ha-ha laugh-ins. These are the informal Laughing Clubs, engagingly described by Tony Hawks in The Weekenders: Adventures in Calcutta. Even if forced, a good giggle can be refreshingly therapeutic.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
M
Belur Math
This attractively landscaped riverside religious centre is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission. Amid the palms and manicured lawns, its centrepiece is the unique 1938 Ramakrishna Mandir, which somehow manages to look like a cathedral, Indian palace and Istanbul’s Aya Sofya all at the same time. That’s deliberate and perfectly in keeping with the message of 19th-century Indian sage Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who preached the unity of all religions.
reviewed
-
N
Tagore's House
Within Rabindra Bharati University, Rabindranath Tagore's comfortable 1784 family mansion (Tagore's House) has become a 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 photo of Tagore with Einstein could win a 'World's Wildest Hair' competition.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
O
Victoria Memorial
Set in an attractive, well-tended park, the incredible Victoria Memorial is a vast, beautifully proportioned confection of white marble domes: think US Capitol meets Taj Mahal. Built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s 1901 diamond jubilee, the structure was finally finished nearly 20 years after her death. Had it been built for a beautiful Indian princess rather than a dead colonial queen, it would surely rate as one of India’s greatest buildings.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
P
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.
reviewed
-
Q
Birla Planetarium
Loosely styled on the Buddhist stupa located at Sarnath, the Birla Planetarium is one of the world’s largest. Its exterior looks impressive when floodlit. Inside, its outer circle forms a small but well-presented, tomb-like gallery featuring astronomer busts and fading star-gazer pictures. The star shows are slow moving, thickly accented introductions to the night sky.
reviewed
-
R
Science City
The dramatic Science City is arranged like a theme park. Spherical, spiral and up-turned hemispherical buildings create a uniquely futuristic skyline around a thought-provoking physics garden. Twice hourly the Time Machine gives short, sci-fi themed simulator rides, the Mirror-Maze is brilliantly disorientating and Evolution Park walks you past animatronic dinosaurs in the eerie half dark.
reviewed
