While talking about the historical monuments of Kolkata no one forgets to mention the grand Victoria Memorial. Though it is a structure created to remember the queen of foreign land whose government ruled India for more than two centuries, but still if you see this structure from architectural point of view it looks magnificent. Though some Indians may not feel proud of its creation because of the reason it was built to mark the victory of British over Indians and it is not something pleasant to our ears. By forgetting the purpose behind the construction of the monument we can just appreciate the beauty of the architecture that this structure has. As the name suggests Victoria Memorial was built to honour the British ruler of United Kingdom and Ireland queen Victoria in the year 1921. King George III was her grandfather while Prince Edward was her father.Sir William Emerson who was the president of the British Institute of Architects designed this spectacular monument. It is not built purely in British style of architecture but you can see that it is a fusion of British as well as Mughal architecture. Spread over a sprawling sixty four acres of land this memorial is currently serving as a fabulous museum showcasing the visual history of city of Kolkata which was compared to London and Paris at that time. Right now the Victoria Memorial is an independent organisation under the Ministry of Culture of Indian Government and manages the museum. It took almost fifteen years to complete the construction of the structure as the foundation was laid in the year 1906. There are spectacular Mughal Gardens sheltering the structure. Two persons designed the Mughal Gardens. They were Lord Redesdale and Sir David Prain who was a Scottish Botanist. Martin and Co. of Kolkata built the structure while the cost was on Indian states and the common man ruled by British. It is quite unfortunate on our soil we paid for something that was created for our rulers from foreign soil.If you see the measurement of the structure you come to know that it is 338 ft by 228 ft with a height of 184 ft. The construction material used to create this monument is Makrana Marble. You can see some resemblance with the great monument of India Taj Mahal as it has some domes, high portals, corner towers, terraces, etc. this memorial has many statues and paintings depicting the queen Empress Victoria and her life events. I feel that these sorts of things should be replaced by the great freedom fighters of the region after independence. It seems like we are standing in the Buckingham Palace of London instead of India. Various statues of British Governors in India are standing tall here. You can also find the statue of Industrialist of Bengal, Sir Rajendranath Mukherjee at the eastern side of memorial. After we got independence in 1947 minor changes were done to the place and some additions were made to already existed collection of the memorial. The national leader’s gallery is added to the collection. It includes various portraits and relics connected to the independence of India. The general collection of museum exhibits British paintings, weapons, sculptures, artefacts, textiles, maps, coins, stamps, etc. The Royal gallery as the name suggests houses several paintings and pictures of British royal family. Among these a painting of Russian artist Vasseli Verestchagin’s is quite appreciated for its accuracy. Some historic items are also on display including the ink pot used by Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar, medals given to Dwarkanath Tagore, the Thorne of Nawab of Bengal, Swords and daggers of Tipu Sultan, Dagger of Nawab Nazim of Bengal,gun powder flask made of mother of pearl of Nawaz Wazir Khan Bahadur, etc. apart from these various scripts by great men are also on display. A good number of Mughal miniatures are also on display.There is a light and sound show regularly conducted here. It attracts good number of people to the memorial. In the night sky when the building is illuminated it looks awesome and grand. It is one of the very well kept museums of India.займ на карту без отказов круглосуточновзять кредит онлайн