Victoria Memorial Hall

A new card I wrote today to my lovely friend, she is from Finland. Here is the picture of the postcard.

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 The Victoria Memorial Hall is a memorial building dedicated to Queen Victoria. It was build between 1906 -1921 and inaugurated in 1921 in Calcutta, India. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens. The building was designed by Sir William Emerson and the design reflects both British as well as Mughal architecture.

Victoria Memorial Hall In Calcutta

The Victoria Memorial Hall is now a museum with many memorabilia’s relating British era in India/Calcutta. The museum has several paintings, sculptures, various arts, rare books, many postage stamps of which a few is shown in the public. It has resemblance to the Belfast City Hall of the Northern Ireland.

Belfast City Hall in Northern Ireland

On the apex of the dome there is a black bronze statue of Angel of Victory. “The angel of victory” acts as weathervane and rotates in strong winds. For many years it stopped rotating. It is 16 feet high and weighs about 16 tons.

Check out flickr for some beautiful shots of Angel of victory of Victoria Memorial ,Calcutta.

                                              ~A lonely Butterfly

  

Jantar Mantar

"Jantar Mantar" , the astronomical observatories was designed by Maharaja Jai Singh II around 1727-1733.King Jai Singh II was very passionate about mathematics and Astronomy. He had studied various works of astronomers when he was in School of astronomy. Jantar Mantar is much bigger astronomical structure, with more complex designs which required lots of measurements. Jantar mantar is constructed with stones and marbels. 

It has lots of statistical instrument to measure time and to ascertain other astronomical events. It is the largest astronomical instrument of the world made with stone.

Jantar Mantar

(“Yantra”/Jantar - means Instrument and “Mantra” /Mantar - means Formula).

There are 18 instruments. The name of the few instruments is -

1.  Samrat Jantra (It is the largest sundial in the world and can tell time accurately of about 2    seconds)

2.  Shasthnasa Jantra

3.  The jai Prakash

4.  Ram Jantra

5. Mishra Jantra  (which measures the shortest and longest day of a year).

Jantar Mantar was renovated in 1901 and was declared the national monument of India later.

Calcutta High Court

Calcutta High Court is the oldest high courts in India ,was established on 1st July, 1862 and  has jurisdiction over the state of W.B. , the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and has a judge strength of 58. The High Court building was designed on the model of the ‘Stadt-Haus’ or Cloth Hall at  Ypres(Ieper),Belgium.It was designed by Mr. Walter Granville (the government architect).

The Calcutta High Court

In the cloth Hall wool and cloth (other fabrics) and many other goods were traded. The building was started around 1200 and was completed in next 100 years.

This Cloth hall was destroyed by fire in World War 1 .Then again it was reconstructed in 1967.Now inside this, there is the Flanders Fields Museum.

The Belfry Tower was one of the oldest part of this hall. It had a watchtower and it had bells for warning, in time of dangers.

From the belfry tower, black cats were thrown out ceremonially to remove "black magic" .In the city of Ypres, Belgium once every three years they have a "Cat festival" (second Sunday in May) and stuffed toy cats are thrown out.

 

        

     Other names of Cloth Hall :

·         Lakenhal

·         Lakenhalle

·         Clothmakers' Hall 

·         Stadt-Haus