Marble Palace
An 1835 mansion built by a Bengali merchant who filled it with European paintings — old wealth's answer to the colonial gallery.
Closed Mondays and Thursdays; entry is free with a guided walk-through. No photography.
60 min
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Kolkata
A Company trading post of 1690 on three river villages became a colonial capital, a printing and reform powerhouse, and then a city that kept the buildings and changed the argument.
Hooghly
1690
Company post
Job Charnock settles the riverbank.
1772
Capital
Seat of British India for 139 years.
1828
Renaissance
Bengal's reform movement takes hold.
1911
Capital moves
The court departs for Delhi.
South Park Street Cemetery
Opened 1767, its pyramids and obelisks marking how fast the early colony's people died and how grandly they insisted on being buried.
Small entry fee; the morning light through the trees is best.
60 min
Shovabazar Rajbari
Built in 1757 by Raja Nabakrishna Deb to host Robert Clive after Plassey, its courtyard staged a lavish Durga Puja that Clive attended that same year.
Still a family home; you can usually see the courtyard and thakur dalan from the entrance. The family's Durga Puja is still held here each autumn.
45 min
Dakshineswar Kali Temple
A riverside temple complex built in 1855 by Rani Rashmoni, where the mystic Ramakrishna served as priest for thirty years.
Go early; phones and bags must be deposited before entering.
90 min
Belur Math
The headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda, with a 1938 temple combining Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Islamic forms.
Closed for a midday break; stay for evening arati, around sunset.
90 min
St John's Church
The city's first cathedral, consecrated in 1787, with Job Charnock's mausoleum and the Black Hole memorial in its grounds.
Small entry fee; look for Zoffany's Last Supper inside.
45 min
Howrah Bridge
A cantilever bridge opened in 1943, one of the busiest in the world, built without nuts and bolts, all riveted.
Walk across at dawn with the flower market below; photography from the bridge itself is sometimes discouraged.
45 min
Magen David Synagogue
Built in 1884 by Kolkata's Baghdadi Jewish community, a red-brick synagogue with a spire, restored in 2017.
Bring photo ID; the nearby Armenian Church of Nazareth, from 1724, is worth adding.
30 min
Kalighat Temple
The current temple dates from 1809 on one of the most important Kali shrines, from which, by one account, the city takes its name.
Ignore touts offering paid darshan; go early on a weekday.
60 min
Mother House
Headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity, the order Mother Teresa founded in 1950. She lived here until her death in 1997 and is buried in its ground-floor chapel, beside a small museum and the room she slept in.
Free. The tomb is open roughly 9am–noon and 3–5:30pm; her room and the museum close on Thursdays. Enter from the side lane, dress modestly and keep quiet.
45 min