Top View of Victoria Memorial

📌 Overview The Victoria Memorial is a large marble building in Central Kolkata, which was built between 1906 and 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria, now a museum under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, and is the largest monument in the world which is dedicated to a royal.The memorial lies on the Maidan and is one of the famous monuments of Kolkata. ● Established- 1921; 101 years ago ● Location- Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata, West Bengal, India ● Type- Museum ● Collection size- Nearly 30,000 (31 March 2009) ● Architect- William Emerson, Vincent Esch ● Website- victoriamemorial-cal.org 📌 Design and Architecture The Victoria Memorial's architect was William Emerson (1843–1924).The design is in the Indo-Saracenic revivalist style which uses a mixture of British and Mughal elements with Venetian, Egyptian, Deccani architectural influences.The building is 338 by 228 feet (103 by 69 m) and rises to a height of 184 feet (56 m). It is constructed of white Makrana marble. The gardens of the Victoria Memorial were designed by Lord Redesdale and David Prain. Emerson's assistant, Vincent Jerome Esch, designed the bridge of the north aspect and the garden gates. In 1902, Emerson engaged Esch to sketch his original design for the Victoria Memorial. Atop the central dome of the Victoria Memorial is the 16 ft (4.9 m) figure of the Angel of Victory. Surrounding the dome are allegorical sculptures including Art, Architecture, Justice, and Charity and above the North Porch are Motherhood, Prudence and Learning. The Victoria Memorial is built of white Makrana marble. In design it echoes the Taj Mahal with its dome, four subsidiaries, octagonal-domed chattris, high portals, terrace, and domed corner towers 📌 Museum The Victoria Memorial has 25 galleries. These include the royal gallery, the national leader's gallery, the portrait gallery, central hall, the sculpture gallery, the arms and armory gallery, and the newer, Kolkata gallery. The Victoria Memorial has the largest single collection of the works of Thomas Daniell (1749–1840) and his nephew, William Daniell (1769–1837). It also has a collection of rare and antiquarian books such as the illustrated works of William Shakespeare, the Arabian Nights and the Rubaiyat by Omar Khayyam as well as books about kathak dance and thumri music by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. However, the galleries and their exhibitions, the programmatic elements of the memorial do not compete with the purely architectural spaces or voids. 📌 Victoria Gallery The Victoria Gallery displays several portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and paintings illustrating their lives, by Jansen and Winterhalter. The oil paintings are copies of those in London. They include Victoria receiving the sacrament at her coronation in Westminster Abbey (June 1838); Victoria's marriage to Albert in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace (1840); the christening of the Prince of Wales in Windsor Castle (1842); the marriage of Edward VII to Princess Alexandra (1863); Victoria at the First Jubilee service at Westminster Abbey (1887) and the Second Jubilee service at St. Paul's Cathedral (June 1897). Queen Victoria's childhood rosewood pianoforte and her correspondence desk from Windsor Castle stand in the center of the room. Edward VII presented these items to the Victoria Memorial. On the south wall hangs the Russian artist Vasily Vereshchagin's oil painting of the state entry of Edward VII in Jaipur in 1876. 📌 Kolkata gallery In the mid-1970s, the matter of a new gallery devoted to the visual history of Kolkata was promoted by Saiyid Nurul Hasan, the minister for education. In 1986, Hasan became the governor of West Bengal and chairman of the Victoria Memorial board of trustees. In November 1988, Hasan hosted an international seminar on the Historical perspectives for the Kolkata tercentenary. The Kolkata gallery concept was agreed and a design was developed leading to the opening of the gallery in 1992. The Kolkata gallery houses a visual display of the history and development of Kolkata when the capital of India was transferred to New Delhi. The gallery also has a life-size diorama of Chitpur road in the late 1800s. 📌 Gardens The gardens at the Victoria memorial cover 64 acres (260,000 m2) and are maintained by a team of 21 gardeners. They were designed by Redesdale and David Prain. On Esch's bridge, between narrative panels by Goscombe John, there is a bronze statue of Victoria, by George Frampton. Empress Victoria is seated on her throne. In the paved quadrangles and elsewhere around the building, other statues commemorate Hastings, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, Robert Clive, Arthur Wellesley, and James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie. To the south of the Victoria, Memorial building is the Edward VII memorial arch. The arch has a bronze equestrian statue of Edward VII by Bertram Mackennal and a marble statue of Curzon by F. W. Pomeroy. The garden also contains statues of Lord William Bentinck, governor-general of India (1833–1835), George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, governor-general of India (1880–84), and Rajendra Nath Mookerjee, a pioneer industrialist of Bengal. Following an order of the West Bengal High Court in 2004, an entry fee was imposed for the gardens, a decision welcomed by the general public except for few voices of dissent. 📌 Other Details ● Victoria Memorial Gallery Kolkata Entry Fee ◆ 20 per person for Indians ◆ 200 per person for Foreign Tourists ◆ 0 Free entry for school children up to Class XII in uniform and Army personnel in uniform ● Victoria Memorial Garden Area Kolkata Entry Fee ◆ 10 per person per entry (Daily ticket) ◆ 100 per person for Garden Entry (Monthly ticket) ◆ 1000 per person for Garden Entry (Yearly ticket) ◆ 2000 per person for Morning Walkers ◆ 1000 per person for Morning Walkers (Senior citizens) ◆ Entry ticket to Light and Sound show is Rs. 10 for Children and Rs. 20 for Adults. ● Victoria Memorial Kolkata Phone 033 2223 1890 Shot on - Nikon D3500 #victoria #mobileohotography #kolkata #WestBengal #India #KnowMyCity #KnowMyCountry #Kolkata_hodophile #KolkatarChobiwala #Pindle #GuideBook #VictoriaMemorial #Heritage