St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral stands on Cathedral Road near the Maidan in Kolkata, West Bengal, and is the principal church of the Diocese of Calcutta in the Church of North India. It was designed by Major William Nairn Forbes of the Bengal Engineers in an Indo-Gothic style, and construction ran from 1839 to 1847, when it was consecrated. Bishop Daniel Wilson, who laid the foundation stone and drove the project, intended it as a cathedral for the capital of British India. The building is faced in plastered brick and follows a Perpendicular Gothic model, with a tall 61-metre central tower inspired by Canterbury's Bell Harry tower. The original steeple was damaged in the 1897 earthquake and was rebuilt, and a second earthquake in 1934 caused further damage to the tower, which was reconstructed in a revised form. Inside, a long nave with a wooden-ceilinged interior leads to the chancel, where the west window carries stained glass by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, made in the 19th century by William Morris and Co. The cathedral also holds memorial tablets to colonial officials and soldiers, and an organ that has been renewed over the years. A notable Italianate fresco of the Resurrection, a gift of Lord Curzon, once decorated a wall of the building. The grounds include a lawn and the cathedral's cultural centre, the Cathedral Relief Centre, and the church sits near the Birla Planetarium and the Victoria Memorial. Services continue throughout the week, and the building is open to visitors outside service times. Conservation has been continuous, funded by the diocese and heritage grants, and the structure remains in active use as a place of worship and as one of the city's best known landmarks.