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Photo: Salil Kumar Mukherjee, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Founded by William Carey in 1820, it is a lush environ owned and managed by the Agri Horticultural Society of India. The venue for exotic plant and flower exhibitions, it is spread over 21 acres comprising main lawns and informal gardens and children park, and has many rare and tropical plants.
The Agri-Horticultural Society of India was founded in 1820 by William Carey on Alipore Road, Kolkata. It has a flower garden, greenhouses, a research laboratory, and a library. Originally known as the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, it houses a massive collection of plants and flowers, and features a significant collection of botanical varieties, including Cannas, for which it has a long and distinguished tradition, with facilities for gardeners and plant/flower lovers.
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জাতীয় গ্রন্থাগার Jātīyo Gronthāgār, previously Belvedere House
This is a stately mansion. Once home of the British Viceroys, the Belvedere House is now the National Library. The oldest library in India with a huge collection, including some rarities. It houses over a million books and is the biggest in India. The Belvedere House also houses the Museum of Word, offering an interactive insight on language.
ধনধান্য Dhonodhānyo
An auditorium shaped like a humongous conch-shell (শাঁখ shānkh), an example of mimetic or novelty architecture in India. Inaugurated on April 2023, the building has 6 floors containing guest house, restaurant, cafeteria, VIP lounge, media lounge and a convention centre. It hosts various cultural programmes and is also a venue for national and international trade fairs.
formerly Alipore Central Jail
A museum dedicated to the Indian independence movement, with a special focus on Bengal. It was a prison during the British rule, and was used to arrest many freedom activists. The museum contains patriotic lyrics of Kazi Nazrul Islam on the wall, along with the individual cells of Jawaharlal Nehru, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Subhas Chandra Bose, Sri Aurobindo and others. There are exhibits within some of these cells that replicate the daily lives of the prisoners. The museum also has a somber site of the gallows where many activists were hanged. It also organises a sound and light show in the evenings in Bengali and Hindi.
আলিপুর চিড়িয়াখানা Ālipur Chiṛiyākhānā
One of the most famous zoological gardens in Eastern India. It was once notorious for its cross-breeding experiments between lions and tigers to produce strains like tigons, ligers and litigons. It was home to Advaita, the longest-lived animal in the world, who died in March 2006. The other success story of the zoo was a live birth of the rare Sumatran rhinoceros in 1889. The lakes within are a favourite retreat for migratory Siberian birds.
The current residence of the descendants of the Bardhaman Raj family who shifted from Bardhaman to Alipore in 1955.