The vast Eden Gardens hosts international cricket matches, and is the home ground of the Kolkata Knight Riders IPL team. Until some years ago, when a renovation cut its seating by half, it was billed as the world's largest cricket stadium with an audience capacity of nearly 120,000. Few enthusiasts, however, know the arena by its real name, Ranji Stadium.
Eden Gardens
Kolkata (Calcutta)
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
1.36 MILES
The incredible Victoria Memorial is a vast, beautifully proportioned festival of white marble: think US Capitol meets Taj Mahal. Had it been built for a…
3.51 MILES
Despite being an awkward journey by public transport, Kolkata’s lovely 109-hectare Botanical Gardens makes for a great place to escape from the city’s…
4.74 MILES
Set very attractively amid palms and manicured lawns, this large religious centre is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, inspired by 19th-century…
2.7 MILES
Countless clay effigies of deities and demons immersed in the Hooghly during Kolkata’s colourful pujas (offering or prayers) are created in specialist…
1.59 MILES
Built in 1835 by a raja from the prosperous Mallick family, this resplendent mansion is as grand as it is curious. Its marble-draped halls are overstuffed…
1.71 MILES
The stately 1784 family mansion of Rabindranath Tagore has become a shrine-like museum to India’s greatest modern poet. Even if his personal effects don’t…
0.66 MILES
India's biggest and oldest major museum celebrated its bicentenary in February 2014. It's mostly a lovably old-fashioned place that fills a large…
1.07 MILES
A vast expanse of green in the heart of the city's brick-and-mortar matrix, the Maidan is where Kolkata's residents congregate for walks, spirited cricket…
Nearby Kolkata (Calcutta) attractions
0.25 MILES
In the northeastern corner of the Maidan, this chunky cenotaph formed of brown-stone blocks commemorates Calcuttans who fell in WWI.
0.26 MILES
The imposing colonnaded cube of the former Town Hall Building dates from 1814. It now hosts Kolkata Panorama, an introduction to the city’s heritage…
0.27 MILES
One of Kolkata’s greatest architectural triumphs, the High Court building was built between 1864 and 1872, loosely modelled on the medieval Cloth Hall in…
0.32 MILES
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…
0.33 MILES
This professionally presented little museum brings alive the history of Indian banking using paintings, models, seals, weapons and archival materials. A…
0.39 MILES
Dominating the upper Maidan near Esplanade bus station, Shahid Minar is a 48m-tall round-topped hollow column commemorating martyrs of the Indian…
0.4 MILES
This stone-spired 1787 church is ringed by columns and contains a small, portrait-draped room once used as an office by Warren Hastings, India’s first…
0.43 MILES
This slender white monolith, standing atop an octagonal base adorned with marble plaques, commemorates those British officials who died in the siege of…