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| Itachuna Rajbari entrance |
If you want to experience living in a heritage house, it is now possible. Just a few hours (3 hours) drive from Kolkata will take you to Itachuna Rajbari in Hooghly district of West Bengal.
By Car: From Kolkata we took the Durgapur Expressway via Vidyasagar setu. After driving for over an hour, on the left you will find Hindusthan Hotel. The left exit right after that will take you to the road which will turn under the bridge. Take that road and you will be in Bosipur, keep driving till you reach Halusai (around 20 kms) and then turn left towards Khanyan Railway Station, Itachuna Rajbari is very close to the station. We missed the Hotel Hindusthan landmark and we ended up doing 50 km extra! I would recommend leaving early in the morning to avoid traffic, you will be able to reach in a little over three hours. You can also get there by train, the station where you will need to get off is "Khanyan".
The history of Itachuna Rajbari, which is over 300 years old, is very interesting. Itachuna Rajbari's history goes back to 1776.They were Bargees (Maratha warriors) who came to rule Bengal (Maratha warriors were referred to as Bargees by Bengalis). Many of the Bargees settled down in Bengal and became wealthy traders. It was one such Maratha warrior family that stayed back in Bengal and built this beautiful building.
This place is just the perfect getaway if you are looking for a quiet, peaceful and scenic weekend. Away from everyday chaos this is the place to just be...my network for some reason just wasn't there, so I was blissfully cut off from the rest of the world. The areas around the Rajbari is green and there are quite a few water bodies around it. It is a perfect place to rest, recuperate, and spend time enjoying nature, good food, and music! Yes, music of the flute variety! There is a person who comes in every morning and evening and he plays the flute. It was a lovely experience and somehow added to the ambience!
In the evening we were provided a tour of the Rajbari and the areas around it.
All in all, it was a great experience to spend a weekend drinking in history and gorging on delicious food.
The rooms are pretty good. I did not have much of a choice because it was a spontaneous decision to go, so I booked the only room that was available and that turned out to be quite good. The experience of staying in a house over 300 years old with so much of history was quite something!
The food was excellent. They served Bengali food and the menu is fixed. You can choose between veg and non-veg food. The spread was very good. If you want to taste authentic Bengali cuisine this could be the perfect place and setting to experience it.
If you live in Kolkata and don’t know where to go next weekend, try to visit Itachuna, it is quite a nice place. For more details you can visit the website of the Itachuna Rajbari: http://www.itachunarajbari.com/tariff.html
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| Itachuna Rajbari-Hooghly India |
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| Temple in the Rajbari |
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