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The sprawling and amorphous area of north Calcutta was long part of the "native" town rather than the European sectors, and was where the city's prosperous nineteenth-century Bengali families created their little palaces. Today its markets continue to thrive unchanged, and the occasional church stands as a reminder of days gone by. North of BBD Bagh, the area known as Barabazaar has played host to a succession of trading communities; the Portuguese were here even before Job Charnock landed at the fishing village that stood close by, and it later became home to Marwari and Gujarati merchants. The small and hectic lanes south of MG Road are lined with shops and stalls that sell everything from glass bangles to textiles. At the northwest corner of Barabazaar, near Howrah Bridge, is Calcutta's oldest church, the Armenian Church of Our Lady of Nazareth . Founded in 1724 by Cavond, an Armenian from Persia, it was built on the site of an Armenian cemetery in which the oldest tombstone dates to 1630. The Armenian community, drawn from both Armenia and Persia, was already highly influential at the courts of Bengal by the time the British arrived, and played an important role in the early history of the East India Company. Later they went on to help start the lucrative jute industry. Just around the corner on MG Road at Murghihatta, the "Chicken Market", stands the Portuguese Roman Catholic Cathedral , built in 1797. East of Barabazaar on Rabindra Sarani (formerly Chitpore Road), the huge red Nakhoda Masjid , whose two lofty minarets rise to 46m, is the great Jami Masjid (Friday mosque) of the city. Completed in 1942, it was modelled on Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra near Agra; its four floors can hold ten thousand worshippers. The traditional Muslim market that flourishes all around the mosque sells religious items along with clothes, dried fruit and sweets such as firni , made of rice. Down the road is the Royal , a renowned Muslim restaurant that has seen better days. North along Rabindra Sarani, musical instrument-makers specialize in sitars, harmoniums and tanburas . Until relatively recently, the chaotic jumble of streets to the south along Rabindra Sarani housed a thriving Chinatown , opium dens and all. Chinese families continue to live around Chhatawala Gully, where a small early-morning street market offers home-made pork sausages, noodles and jasmine tea. But the stalls serving wonton and dim sum are rapidly disappearing and the legendary Nanking restaurant, once one of the most elegant in the city, has finally closed its doors. Today, the best Chinese restaurants can be found in the east of the city, in the new Chinatown in Tangra. North of MG Road, on the tiny Muktaram Babu Street off Chittaranjan Avenue, the extraordinary Marble Palace (Tues, Wed & Fri-Sun; free; no photography) preserves its lavish, sensuous treasures in somewhat cramped and dilapidated conditions. Visitors should obtain passes to join a guided tour from the tourist offices at BBD Bagh or Shakespeare Sarani. Built in 1835 by Raja Rajendro Mullick Bahadur, a wealthy zamindar (landowner) educated by an English tutor, the colonnaded mansion epitomizes the incredible profusion of influences of the period, and is still maintained by the raja's descendants, who live here. The palace earns its name from its ornate marble-paved chambers, which hold statues, European antiques, Belgian glass, chandeliers, mirrors and Ming vases. There are paintings by Rubens, Titian, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Gainsborough. Look out for two paintings by Ravi Varma - a portrait of a woman whose eyes gaze back at you from wherever you view the painting, and a picture of five galloping horses which seem to change direction as you walk past. Other quirks include a bronze gorilla, a four-metre-high rosewood statue of Queen Victoria, a large red glass chalice from Belgium which detects poisoned food, and Venus statues in every nook and cranny. North of Marble Palace is the city's main red-light area, Sonagachi . This is not a district in which travellers are particularly welcome; the police here have been known to arrest foreigners. If curiosity gets the better of you and you want to explore the area, leave your valuables behind. On Dwarkanath Tagore Lane, a short walk northeast of the Marble Palace, the small campus of Rabindranath Tagore's liberal arts university, Rabindra Bharati , preserves the house where he was born and died. Now the Rabindra Bharati Museum (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-1.30pm; free), currently undergoing restoration, it holds a large collection of his paintings. Next door, Bichitra Bhavan is used, as it was by Tagore himself, to stage theatrical performances. In September, it is the scene of a festival commemorating the Nobel Laureate. Further east, College Street stretches along the edge of Calcutta University. Established in 1857 as the pride of Bengali learning, it still has one of the largest student bodies in the world. Senate House, one of its earliest buildings, was gutted during the turbulent days of the early Seventies. College Street deals exclusively in books and supplies for students; its pavement stalls and shops are an excellent hunting ground for secondhand books, if not genuine antiques. Adjoining Albert Street, the famous India Coffee House , although now a bit jaded, continues to attract students and the intelligentsia. The small Ashutosh Museum of Indian History (Mon-Fri 10.30am-4.30pm, Sat 10.30am-2pm; free), at the Centenary Building on College Street, has a good collection of Bengali art, handicrafts and fabrics as well as rare Buddhist manuscripts and statues. North Calcutta has two large Jain temples . One, in Belgachia next to the bridge and the Metro station, is a simple red-sandstone structure set in manicured lawns, dedicated to the Digambara sect. The other, at Manicktolla , known as the Parasnath Jain temple, consists of a group of temples set in an ornate garden which holds ponds full of carp. It honours Sitalnath , the lord of water and the tenth in the line of 24 tirthankaras (crossing-makers) that culminated with Mahavira,  © 2003 by Rough Guides Ltd. as trustee for its Authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved. Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd. Buy the book here!
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born in Vaishali in 599 BC. Neoclassical marble and alabaster statues grace the grounds while the main temple, another architectural hybrid, is crowned by an ornate cupola. Inside the chamber the image of Sitalnath is surrounded by glitzy marble-work studded with silver. An odd mixture of Venetian and post-Moghul, its assorted multi-hued chandeliers are offset by the surrounding glass and mirrors. Along with an information centre, the temple area has several Jain shrines and boarding houses.
Your Tips For North Calcutta
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