Kolkata the city of joy and the capital of West Bengal which is a state in eastern region of India. Kolkata is a historical place founded by Job Charnock during the british period in India in 1690. Kolkata was also the capital of India till 1911, after that it shifted to New Delhi.
Kolkata is one among the twenty one districts of West Bengal. It is the witness of various historical events happened in India.
Kolkata is a metropolitan city under Kolkata Municipal Corporation which was founded in 1876, headed by a Mayor. KMC recently formed a committee namely Heritage Conservation Committee/commission. According to West Bengal Heritage Commission Act, 2001 the West Bengal heritage commission works to preserve the heritage sites like ancient buidings, parks, monuments or any historical or cultural significant places at Kolkata. All these maximum places are old as built in British period. Thats why we see British architechtural styles on all these sites.The commission supervises and maintains these places as heritage site.
KMC have some instructions that what will be considered as a heritage.
1. Any buildings or its part, park or anything which has its historical values, architectural, environmental or assetal values.
2. Buildings which is important or valueable through its historical, scientific, social, political, cultural or technological form.
3. Well designed, styled, constructed buildings that is uncomparable to others.
I am giving this information because it can be helpful to any west bengal govt or non-govt job exam general knowledge. It also help you for any quiz contest programme.
According to this above conditions which places and buildings has been listed as kolkata’s heritage sites are following :
1. Collectorate House
2. House of Chittaranjan Das
3. Writer’s Building -> The Writers Building popularly known as ‘Mahakaran’ is the secretariat building of the State of Government of West Bengal is a 150 meter long heritage building established in 1777 located at B.B.D Bag, Kolkata. The building was designed by Thomas Lyon during British Rule in India. The names of Benoy Basu, Badal Gupta and Dinesh Gupta are associated with this famous historical building.
4. Rajbhavan -> Rajbhavan was the official residence of the Viceroy of India, during British period. After shifting the capital to Delhi in 1911 it became the residence of Lieutenant Governor of West Bengal. Now it is the permanent residence of the Governor of West Bengal. The architectural work of this heritage building was started in 1799 and completed in 1803. The main architect of this building was English Charles Wyatt. It is also a tourist spot in West Bengal.
RajBhavan
5. House of Rammohan Roy
6. Bethune Collegiate School -> Asia’ s first women’s Bethune college was founded by John Elliot Drinkwater Bethune in 1849. Located at Beadon Street, Kolkata
7. Alipore Observatory
8. Asiatic Society – It was established by Sir William Jones in 1784, located at Park Street
9. National Library – The National Library of India established in 1953, located at Belvedere Estate, Kolkata
10. Belgachia Hostel of Medical College
11. Brahma Valika Vidyalaya
12. Currency Building
13. House of Rani Rasmani
14. Esplanade Manson
15. Greek Orthodox Church
16. Grand Hotel
17. House of Saratchandra Chatterjee
18. Queens Manson
19. Science College
20. House of Pasupati Bose
21. Indian Association Hall
22. Cemetry of Job Charnok
Job Charnok Cemetry
23. Cossipore Uddan Bati
24. Indian Museum
25. Jorabagan Police Station
26. Lic Metropolitan Building
27. Lic Council House Street
28. Marble Palace
29. Lohia Matri Sadan
30. Metropolitan Institution
31. Saint Paul’s Church
32. Nizam Palace
33. Military Secretariat
34. Motilal Shil Free College
35. Star Theatre
36. Royal Insurance Building
37. Saint Margaret College
38. Standard Building
39. Shovabazar Rajbari
40. Statesman House
41. Chowringhee YMCA Building
42. Tollygunj Club
43. Vidyasagar Hostel
44. Macintos Building
45. Standard Chartered Building
46. Guilandar House
47. Kanak Building
48. General Post Office
49. Royal Exchange Building
50. Victoria Memorial
51. Great Eastern Hotel
52. Commercial Library
53. Thakur Bari
54. Jorasanko Rajbari
Jorasanko
55. Highcourt
56. Metcafe Hall
57. Town Hall
58. Howrah Bridge
Howrah Bridge
59. Kumortuli
60. Coffee House
61. Shahid Minar
62. Eden Gardens
63. Mosque of Tipu Sultan
64. Saint John’s Church
65. Saint Paul’s Cathedral
66. Kolkata Race Course
These Heritage sites are the pride of Kolkata and the major tourist destination in West Bengal as well as India.
There are also have some UNESCO recognised World Heritage Sites near to Kolkata. They are 1. Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Darjeeling, West Bengal 2. Sundarbans National Park, West Bengal.
Darjeeling Himalayan Railway :
This heritage site is near about 580 KM away from Kolkata. This site was recognised in UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1999. The 78 KM long Darjeeling Himalayan railway is popularly known as Toy Train which runs among thirteen stations, from Ghum(Highest railstation in India) to New Jalpaiguri. This heritage site is one of West Bengal’s top tourist spot maintained by Indian Railways
Sundarbans National Park :
Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world and national park in India. This world heritage site is 100 KM away from Kolkata. In 1984 Sundarbans was declared as a national park and in 1987 it became a natural World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Sundarbans is located on Ganges river delta bordered by Bay of Bengal in West Bengal. Mainly this site is world famous for royal bengal tiger. Besides various type of birds, crocodiles and other species are found here.
I have tried to give here the proper information as possible, if anything missing just leave a comment…
3 Responses
Address of the heritage sites is also required. Otherwise it is not helpful.
What made KMC leave Artist Jamini Roy’s house OUT OF HERITAGE LIST? Being born and brought up at Ballygunge Place I have seen the famous artist in creation of uncountable paintings in his ground floor studio now spreaded worldwide. Many famous personality like Padmaja Naidu, Dharamvir,Indira Gandhi, Suchitra Sen,Siddhartha Ray,Nandalal Bose, Lady Ranu Mukherjee(regular visitor herself) beside many foreign and domestic dignitaries visited this In-house studio and met the artist on number of occations. Thousands of paintings bought by eminent national and international personalities from this studio.The respected artist maintained simplest of life style maintaining regular interactions with locals during daily walk in front of this house.The artist himself migrated from Bankura and setteled at this building since his last breath. The “Colour of LAL MATI(red soil)” that got world recognition was devoloped,applied and used to create wonderful paintings by artist at this house.
After artist’s death, the Famouse studio no more exists except his remaining paintings with family. The studio is now leased to a bank since 1998 and now a full fledged bank is runing here. This bank has become a nuisance creating regular problem and hampering safety and security of local residents which is a separate issue and number of complaints lodged with local police station in this regard but no solution yet.
I request #KolkataMunicipalityCorporation beside #MayorSovonChatterjee and #CMofWestBengal to look into the matter and take immediate action in this regard. As per local whishperings, if it becomes a reality that the building is under process of sell to a non bengalee, it would be nothing less than killing public sentiment and emotion nurtured since last century.
Cossipore club and tram’s of kolkata are not in heritage list??