Victoria Memorial
“Let us, therefore, have a building, stately, spacious, monumental, and grand, to which every newcomer in Calcutta will turn, to which all the resident population…, will flock, where all classes will learn the lessons of history and see revived before their eyes the marvels of the past.” -Lord Curzon
After the demise of queen Victoria in 1901, the then viceroy of India, Lord Curzon decided to erect a grand monument in the memory of the Queen, which now we know as Victoria Memorial.
The construction of this spectacular monument was started in 1906 and took as much as 15 years to complete in 1921. The largest monument to a monarch anywhere in the world, it stands in 64 acres of gardens and is a class of its own!
The government officials, princes, politicians, and people of India responded generously to Lord Curzon’s appeal for funds, and the total cost of construction of the monument, amounting to one crore, five lakhs of Rupees, was entirely derived from their voluntary subscriptions.
Location: Queen’s Way, Kolkata
Timings:
Museum: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm; closed on Mondays
Gardens: 5:30 am to 6:15 pm
Entry Fee:
Museum: INR 20 for Indians; INR 500 for foreigners
Gardens: INR 10 per head
Jorasanko Thakur Bari, Kolkata
This famous red colored building, located in Jorasanko, North Kolkata, is carrying the legacy and colorful stories of the Tagore family since the era of British Raj.
It had gained even more fame and attration for being the birth place of none other than world’s renowned poet, Rabindranath Tagore, the first Indian to receive the Nobel prize.
For lovers of history and Bengali literature, the Jorasanko Thakur Bari or the Tagore’s House is one of the favorite historical places in Kolkata.
The home of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s house is now converted into a museum and there are about 700 paintings exhibited in this ancestral home. The museum also houses three different galleries, manuscripts, books, and other antique items.
It was built in the 18th century on the land donated by the famous Sett family of burrabazar to ‘Prince’ Dwarkanath Tagore (Rabindranath Tagore’s grandfather)
Location: Girish Park, Kolkata
Timings: 10:30 am to 5:00 pm
Entry Fee: INR 10 per person; INR 5 for students