Famous Landmarks in Kolkata
Marble Raj monuments and a cantilever steel bridge frame the Hooghly's east bank.
Kolkata's built landmarks cluster on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, where the city grew as the East India Company's fort town and then as the de facto capital of British India until 1911, for a time the second-largest city in the empire after London. That administrative weight shows in stone and marble: the Victoria Memorial rises in white marble amid the open ground of the Maidan, built in the Indo-Saracenic style favoured for imperial monuments, while St. Paul's Cathedral applies Gothic Revival forms adapted, as Indo-Gothic, to the local climate. The one non-masonry landmark is later and utilitarian: the steel cantilever Howrah Bridge, raised in 1943 to replace a pontoon crossing and still carrying traffic between Kolkata and the Howrah rail terminal across the river.
Victoria Memorial
1906–1921 · William Emerson
The building is faced in marble and set within 26 hectares of gardens, its Indo-Saracenic design combining European and Islamic-derived architectural elements across a long, symmetrical structure.
The memorial commemorates Queen Victoria, who reigned as Empress of India from 1876 to 1901, and stands in the Maidan with its main entrance on Queen's Way. Raised between 1906 and 1921, with the superstructure begun in 1910, it was built by Martin & Co. of Calcutta, the firm founded by Rajendranath Mukherjee together with Thomas Acquin Martin. Set within 26 hectares of gardens, it is described as the largest monument built to any monarch anywhere in the world. It now operates as a museum under India's Ministry of Culture.
- It is reckoned the largest monument ever built to a monarch anywhere in the world.
- The firm that built it, Martin & Co. of Calcutta, was founded by Rajendranath Mukherjee together with Thomas Acquin Martin.
Photo: Subhrajyoti07 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Howrah Bridge
1943
The bridge is built entirely of steel as a cantilever structure, one of the longest of its type when finished, and it still carries the heaviest recorded traffic of any cantilever bridge in the world.
Commissioned in 1943 as the New Howrah Bridge, the structure replaced an older pontoon crossing and links Burrabazar with the Howrah rail terminal on the opposite bank. In 1965 it was renamed Rabindra Setu after the poet Rabindranath Tagore, though the earlier name has stuck. It is one of four bridges crossing the river, alongside Vidyasagar Setu, Vivekananda Setu and Nivedita Setu, and reportedly carries around 100,000 vehicles and over 150,000 pedestrians daily, making it the busiest cantilever bridge anywhere.
- It was renamed Rabindra Setu in 1965, after the poet Rabindranath Tagore, the first Indian and Asian Nobel laureate, though the old name never went away.
- At completion it was the third-longest cantilever bridge in the world; today it ranks sixth-longest of its type.
Photo: Pradip paswan (CC BY-SA 4.0)
St. Paul's Cathedral
1847
Its Gothic Revival design was adapted, as 'Indo-Gothic', for the tropical climate, and the structure was reworked to a revised plan after later earthquake damage. An unusual library sits above the western porch, a feature that stands out on the exterior.
Its cornerstone was laid in 1839 and the building completed in 1847 as the seat of the Diocese of Calcutta, now part of the Church of North India. Reckoned the largest church in the city and the first Anglican cathedral built in Asia, it was designed in a Gothic style adapted, as 'Indo-Gothic', to the local climate. Earthquakes in 1897 and 1934 damaged the structure, which was subsequently reconstructed to a revised design. A library sits over the western porch, alongside a display of memorabilia.
- It was the first cathedral newly built anywhere in Britain's overseas territories.
- One of its burials is John Paxton Norman, an acting Chief Justice assassinated on the steps of Kolkata Town Hall in 1871.
Photo: Ankitesh Jha (CC BY-SA 3.0)
History
Calcutta grew from three villages on the Hooghly's eastern bank, which the Nawab of Bengal ruled under Mughal suzerainty. The East India Company secured a trading licence in 1690 and fortified the site as Fort William. Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah seized the fort in 1756 but was defeated the following year at the Battle of Plassey, after his own general, Mir Jafar, mutinied to support the Company and was briefly installed as Nawab in his place. Company and then Crown administration turned the town into the de facto capital of India, a status it held until 1911, and for a period Calcutta ranked as the second-largest city in the British Empire after London. That century of colonial government and commerce funded the marble memorial, the cathedral and, later, the steel bridge that still define the riverfront today.