Calcutta astonishes and detonates. Far from India's tourist routes, the city has carved its own trail, cultivated its identity and preserved its past imperial splendour. Nowhere else in India is the scent of old England as palpable as in this city.
To discover
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Discover its architectural heritage, admire its colonial buildings, visit the iconic Victoria Memorial, before strolling through its colorful markets, meet its artists and taste its street food. Follow our guide.
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Visit the Victoria Memorial
The iconic Victoria Memorial is an imposing white marble monument. Saiko3P
We walk through the Maidan district with its vast avenues punctuated by grandiose buildings, the historic heart of the former capital of the British Indian Empire. The iconic Victoria Memorial, an imposing white marble monument whose lines lie between the White House and the Taj Mahal, sits imperturbably and majesticly south of Maidan Park and reflects its immaculate dome in the ponds of the gardens that surround it. Built to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, it is now a popular museum and park.
We visit its small museum which houses a permanent collection of art and a gallery where we learn the history of the city. Facing the Victoria Memorial, a detour to St. Paul's Cathedral, a beautiful neo-Gothic building built by the British in 1847, is a must.
BOOK A PRIVATE TOUR OF KOLKATA
Stroll along Chowringhee Street
At the exit of the cathedral we take Chowringhee street, once the main artery of the imperial capital. We stroll on the wide sidewalk admiring the perfect alignment of the old Edwardian facades, its large vintage hotels like the Oberei Grand, a large white colonial-style palace and stop in its high-end shops and shopping centers.
In the Indian Museum, you can admire the Buddhist sculptures of Gandhara (I century BC - IV century AD). Finally, the visit ends with the New Market, the meeting place for shopaholics. Textiles, clothing, bags, crafts, tea, hi-tech... Almost everything is in this colourful bazaar!
Take a "Heritage tour" in the BBD Bagh district
There is a concentration of the most beautiful colonial buildings classified "heritage" of Calcutta. Zatletic
Continuing the walk in the same street we walk along the emblematic Eden Park, the largest cricket stadium in the world and we arrive at the BBD Bagh district (named after the three separatists Benoy, Badal, Dinesh), the former Dalhousie Square, the administrative, political and financial center of the British Indian Empire.
There is a concentration of Kolkata's finest heritage-listed colonial buildings, such as the Writer's Building, an elegant 240-year-old red brick building that now houses the West Bengal state government. Two steps further, one marvels at The Last Supper by the German painter Johan Zoffany in the Church of St. John, the first parish church of the city (1787).
DISCOVERING THE HERITAGE OF CALCUTTA
Taste Street food
Kolkata is famous for its street food. Matyas Rehak
Kolkata is famous for its street food. In the downtown districts, at lunchtime around Chowringhuee and Park Street, the streets fill with office workers eating on the go and discussions are going well.
We sneak into the crowd to admire the dexterity of the street "cooks" preparing before our eyes chapatis (Indian bread), delicious curries and other Bengali specialties and we taste one of these delicacies served on small cardboard plates for less than a euro! After these small snacks we treat ourselves to a cup of chai, the perfect blend of tea, milk, cardamom and sugar, at one of the street chaiwallah (tea maker).
Take a mini-cruise on the Hooghly
We let ourselves slide on the calm water of the river for a journey through the historical past of Bengal. Shantanav
We board a boat at Vivada Pier near the BBD Bagh district for a three-hour mini-cruise on the Hooghly, a tributary of the Ganges. Far from the hectic hustle and bustle of the city, we let ourselves slide on the calm water of the river for a journey through the historical past of Bengal. Portuguese, French, English and Dutch... all went up the Hooghly to install their trading posts on its banks from the sixteenth century.
From then on, silk, spices, jutes and opium... all the wealth of Bengal sailed on this river aboard the great merchant ships bound for Europe. On the many ghats, stairs descending to the river, women and men make their ablutions, plunge into the sacred river, lay some offerings of flowers, meditate or be massaged.
BOOK YOUR CRUISE
Marvel at the flower market
The flowers are mostly destined for temples throughout the province of Bengal. Oscar Espinosa
Early in the morning we go to the famous bridge of Howrah, the symbol of Calcutta. This 655 m long mixture of steel and exhaust gas is certainly the busiest bridge in the world, with 80,000 cars and more than a million pedestrians crossing it daily! At the foot of this iron juggernaut and this traffic of hell the most delicate perfumes take over at the flower market of Mullik Ghat.
We stroll through the mountains of orange and yellow carnations, garlands of jasmine, bouquets of orchids or roses that are traded here. The flowers are mostly destined for temples throughout the province of Bengal.
BOOK YOUR TRANSFERS IN KOLKATA
Meet the Godmakers of Kumartuli
Craftsmen fashioned Hindu deities to provide the statues of the Gods of the various religious festivals that punctuate the Hindu calendar. Pabitra
We hail an ambassador, the iconic yellow taxi of Calcutta, to go to the district of the godmakers in Kumartuli in the north of Calcutta. Here, one is born sculptor of Hindu deities from generation to generation and the hundred workshops where the idols of straw and clay come to life clutch together. The craftsmen shape before our eyes Hindu deities to provide the statues of the Gods of the various religious festivals that punctuate the Hindu calendar.
We let ourselves go in the labyrinthine alleys, from workshop to workshop to see the sculptors model, makeup and dress the countless statues. Some sculptures seem larger than life! The months leading up to October are the most intense in activity, when artisans produce statues of the 10-armed goddess Durga for the festival held in her honor.
VISIT TO THE TEMPLES OF CALCUTTA
Paying tribute to Mother Teresa
We pray in front of the tomb of Mother Teresa and visit the museum dedicated to her. Zatletic
One cannot go to Calcutta without visiting the House of the Missionaries of Charity created by Mother Teresa in 1950. The place welcomes volunteers from all over the world guided by the charism of this Albanian, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1977 and canonized by Pope Francis in 2016. We go there in the late afternoon to attend adoration, a moment of grace during which the sisters sing and meditate.
We pray in front of Mother Teresa's tomb and visit the museum dedicated to her as well as the small room in which she lived in the greatest destitution and where she died in 1997.
VISIT TO MOTHER TERESA'S HOUSE
Immerse yourself in the intimacy of Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore is one of India's greatest poets. Zatletic
Born in Calcutta, Rabindranath Tagore is one of India's greatest poets and the first man from the Asian continent to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. We visit his birthplace, now a museum dedicated to the life and work of the artist. In the beautiful red brick mansion built by the Tagore family in the eighteenth century we discover the Bengali art of living through the antique furniture and the layout of the different rooms.
Life-size portraits, original paintings and photographs tell the evolution of Tagore as an artist but also his commitment as a philosopher, he was the figure of the Bengali Renaissance. "Kavi guru", i.e. the master of poets, is now a source of inspiration for the younger generation and his home, once the nerve centre of artistic and cultural reform in Bengal, has become a place of pilgrimage for contemporary artists from India.
GUIDED TOUR OF CHIC NEIGHBORHOODS
Sip coffee at the Indian Coffee House
We stop here for a coffee break and immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the Bengali pastime par excellence. Radiokafka
The Indian Coffee House on College Square is a real institution in Kolkata. We stop here for a coffee break and immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the Bengali pastime par excellence. As soon as we cross the threshold, we are caught up in the ambient hubbub of conversations that resonate in the huge room on two floors.
Residents of all social categories, students, retirees, or politicians, gather here to chat while sipping coffee for a few cents under the giant portrait of Tagore. Over the decades, the Coffee House has been a meeting place for Bengali writers, poets, and artists such as Tagore, but also Satyajit Ray and Amartya Sen, a Bengali flora café!
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY DAY
