Where to Stay in Chandannagar, West Bengal

What is Chandannagar known for?

On the west bank of the river above Kolkata, it grew as a trading post of French India under the governor Dupleix, and it keeps that past in its riverside Strand, the domed Sacred Heart church, the old Dupleix palace, and the lamp-lit splendour of its Jagaddhatri festival. The wide river runs past the town. Old villas line the Strand.

What are the main landmarks in Chandannagar?

The Sacred Heart church rises over the Strand at Chandannagar. The white domed church by the river, built in the French colonial years, stands above the promenade, the emblem of the town, over the water. A riverside walk runs below.

The tree-lined Strand follows the Hooghly past the old mansions, while the Dupleix palace museum, the French cemetery, and the Nandadulal temple mark the streets of Chandannagar.

What is the history of Chandannagar?

Chandannagar was for two centuries a corner of France in Bengal. The French set up a trading post on the Hooghly here in 1673, and under the governor Dupleix in the seventeen-forties it grew into a rich town of warehouses, churches, and riverside mansions. France ruled the little town.

Even as the British took the rest of Bengal, Chandannagar stayed French, a small enclave with its own laws and language on the great river. The French flag flew here long after the empire fell. Only in the years after India won its freedom did Chandannagar vote to join the new nation, ending centuries of French rule at last.

The town kept its French face. Its Strand, its church, and its mansions still stand along the river, and the French school and institute keep the old ties, while the great Jagaddhatri festival lights the streets each autumn. The river still runs past the Strand.

Chandannagar keeps its churches and its French streets on the Hooghly.

Where is Chandannagar?

Chandannagar lies on the Hooghly river in West Bengal, in the flat delta of the Ganges north of Kolkata. The town spreads along the west bank of the broad river across the green plain of Bengal, with paddy fields and palm groves behind and the tidal Hooghly running past to the sea. Flat delta country reaches away.

The river slides brown to the south.

What is the climate of Chandannagar?

The climate at Chandannagar is tropical: heavy heat and heavier rain. Hot humid summers and mild winters cross the delta, and the monsoon brings heavy rain from the sea in the middle of the year, flooding the low country. The wet air hangs over the river.

Winter brings a short cool spell.

How do you get to Chandannagar?

Chandannagar lies in West Bengal, on the Hooghly about forty kilometres north of Kolkata. Trains on the main line run to it along the river from Kolkata and Howrah, and roads follow the bank. Ferries cross the Hooghly to the far shore.

Kolkata lies down the river to the south.