Raj Bhavan (West Bengal)

Raj Bhavan ( Raj Bhôbon, Hindi Rāj Bhavan, 'Government House') is the Governor's palace in Kolkata, West Bengal. Built in 1803 and once the residence of the Viceroy of India, and called Government House, the palatial building is now the residence of the Governor of West Bengal. The present Governor, H.E. Mayankote Kelath Narayanan, resides in the building.

History

Raj Bhavan used to be 'Government House' in the Raj era, the seat of British imperial power. The structure was built in 1799–1803 to the designs of Captain Charles Wyatt of the Bengal Engineers, during the tenure of the Marquess Wellesley as the Governor-General of India. It now serves as the residence of the Governor of the Indian state of West Bengal, and is referred to by its Hindi name: 'Raj Bhavan'.

Architecture

The three-storied structure of Raj Bhavan was inspired by Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, Great Britain. Interestingly, Kedleston Hall is the ancestral home of Lord Curzon, who became the Viceroy of India (from 1899 to 1904) and lived in Government House exactly a century after Lord Wellesley.

While the basic features of Kedleston, such as the Palladian front, the Dome, etc., have been faithfully copied, Government House is a much larger, three storeyed structure. Also, the Government of India evidently did not have the funding constraints that forced the Curzons to leave their house incomplete. Government House has all four wings originally conceived for Kedleston. So today, a 'complete'...
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