Victoria Memorial Hall - Kolkata, India

You can find a lot of British heritage buildings across India, especially in some of the main cities such as Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. However, it is almost impossible to find a similar site like Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata city of West Bengal state. This building is incomparably great.

The Victorial Memorial Hall stands as a museum today in the famous maidan area of Kolkata. This memorial is definitely an important tourist site of Kolkata.

After the British Queen Victoria died in 1901, Curzon, the then Viceroy of British India, suggested to build a memorial for Queen Victoria. Based on his suggestion, various princes of India who wanted the friendship of British funded for the project. The British Government didn't spend any money to build this huge memorial. The Victoria Memorial was opened to the public in 1921.

Although the architecture of the memorial is built in Indo-Saracenic style, you can also find the Mughal style in the building. The building in fact is a fusion of British and Mughal style of architecture.

The Memorial Hall, the architectural marvel is located within 64 acres of well maintained garden. Some statues of British period are found in the garden. The notable statue is Queen Victoria's statue placed well in front of the Memorial building.

The Memorial Hall which stands as a museum nowadays has a lot of interesting collections from British period. The royal section of the museum has a lot of paintings and statues of Queens and Kings of Britain and Viceroys of British India. Another section of the museum has photographs of Rabinranath Tagore and Mother Teresa.

There are few halls in the museum which display the old paintings of Kolkata in olden days and the Goddess Kali. The paintings of national leaders and old weapons such as swords, guns, etc. are also found in the memorial hall.

Victoria Memorial Hall is one of the sites in West Bengal you should not miss.

Happy travelling.

Fast Facts:
Site Name: Victoria Memorial Hall
Site Type: Memorial, Monument, Heritage site, British architecture
Location:  Kolkata city, West Bengal state, India 
Highlights: One of the most important tourist sites in Kolkata; a symbol of British architecture
Nearest Railway Station: Kolkata - well connected from the cities/towns all over India

Nearest Airport: Kolkata has both national and international airports
How to reach: Easily reachable from Kolkata
Hotel: Many star hotels, luxury hotels/resorts, and budget hotels are available in Kolkata
Restaurants: All options - vegetarian, non-vegetarian, Chinese, South Indian, Gujarati, North Indian, Punjabi,....- you can find everything in Kolkata city

View Larger Map