{"id":18278,"date":"2013-05-22T10:48:59","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T10:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bharatestates.com\/blog\/?p=18278"},"modified":"2020-06-15T04:08:23","modified_gmt":"2020-06-14T22:38:23","slug":"armenian-church-the-oldest-church-of-kolkata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bharatestates.com\/blog\/armenian-church-the-oldest-church-of-kolkata\/","title":{"rendered":"Armenian Church: The Oldest Church of Kolkata"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-18279\" alt=\"Armenian-Church\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bharatestates.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Armenian-Church.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" \/>Kolkata is a historic city full of joy and festivals. It can be considered a melting pot of various religions. Some are of our own country while some are brought in from foreign lands. In our journey of religious places in Kolkata we have already talked a lot about Anglican Churches. Let me take you to a church that is known as Armenian Church which is situated at the North West corner of Bara Bazaar in Armenian Street of Kolkata city. This church is located close to the famous Howrah Bridge. You must be wondering how an Armenian church was built in a country that is ruled by British for centuries and that too without any mention in any ancient documents. Let me help you. Kolkata being an important trade and commerce centre for centuries, many people from foreign countries came here and then settled here. Among these foreigners Dutch, French, Jews, Chinese and Armenians are included with sizeable population. It is said that Armenians came to India even before British but they did not rule India. Instead they lived in isolation if folks are to be believed. It is said that this church is the oldest church of Kolkata and it is only possible if Armenians lived in India in ancient times. Some opine that these Armenians or their ancestors might be converted into Christianity while in European Continent as per a contract signed by East India Co. and Armenians in Europe on 22nd June, 1688. The contract stated that East India Co. will build Armenian churches in all corners of India and minimum forty Armenians will live there. East India Company also promised to pay fifty ponds of remuneration to the priests appointed for every church. No one actually knows how many churches were built after the contract was signed.A small wooden church was built in the year 1690 by Job Charnock at the south eastern wing of the current Armenian church. Some folks do not agree with this version and have their own version of inception of the church. They say a person named Aga Nazar who was an Armenian built the church by collecting funds. Even the date of construction of the present Church is quite confusing as there are three different times are said to be the date of its inception and they are 1630, 1724, 1734 and 1764. If we leave the date of its construction then we can go ahead. The Armenian Church is built by Aga Mamed Hazaar Maliyar while its interiors were planned by an Armenian named Katchik Arfiel. Along with the church residences for Priests were also built. High walls around the cemetery were also created. There is a beautiful clock in the church and that too was donated by him.Now let me tell you some of the main features of the Current Armenian Church of Kolkata. As I told you before it is the oldest existing church of Kolkata city. Marble stone is used in the interiors of the church. There is a gallery on the first floor and it can be reached by a flight of stairs. This gallery has various Mural tablets on the walls. There is an altar in the church which has a holy cross, the gospels and twelve candle sticks. These represent Jesus Christ and his twelve disciples. The Altar is adorned by three impressive oil paintings titled &#8216;The Holy Trinity&#8217;, &#8216;The Last Supper&#8217; and &#8216;The Enshrouding of Our Lord&#8217;. These paintings were made by an English artist A. E. Harrison. There is a cemetery in the premises but in ruins right now. This Armenian Church is a hope of some one hundred odd Armenian families still living in Kolkata.<strong>Timings to visit the church<\/strong>From 10.00 am to 11.30 am &amp; from 3.00 pm to 5.00 pm in the evening<strong>Entry fee<\/strong>Nothing<strong>Time to explore the church<\/strong>Half an hour<strong>Address<\/strong>1, Armenian Street, close to Howrah Bridge,North West corner of Bara Bazaar, Kolkata,West Bengal, India<strong>RUCHI MAHAJAN<\/strong>&nbsp;<span style=\"left:100%;display:inline-block;position:fixed\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rusbankinfo.ru\/\">\u0437\u0430\u0439\u043c \u043d\u0430 \u043a\u0430\u0440\u0442\u0443 \u0431\u0435\u0437 \u043e\u0442\u043a\u0430\u0437\u043e\u0432 \u043a\u0440\u0443\u0433\u043b\u043e\u0441\u0443\u0442\u043e\u0447\u043d\u043e<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/rusbankinfo.ru\/credits.html\">\u0432\u0437\u044f\u0442\u044c \u043a\u0440\u0435\u0434\u0438\u0442 \u043e\u043d\u043b\u0430\u0439\u043d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kolkata is a historic city full of joy and festivals. It can be considered a melting pot of various religions. Some are of our own country while some are brought in from foreign lands. In our journey of religious places in Kolkata we have already talked a lot about Anglican Churches. Let me take you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Armenian Church: The Oldest Church of Kolkata -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bharatestates.com\/blog\/armenian-church-the-oldest-church-of-kolkata\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Armenian Church: The Oldest Church of Kolkata -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kolkata is a historic city full of joy and festivals. It can be considered a melting pot of various religions. Some are of our own country while some are brought in from foreign lands. In our journey of religious places in Kolkata we have already talked a lot about Anglican Churches. Let me take you [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bharatestates.com\/blog\/armenian-church-the-oldest-church-of-kolkata\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gayatri.subramanian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-22T10:48:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-06-14T22:38:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.bharatestates.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/Armenian-Church.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"gayatri\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"gayatri\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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