Église

St. Paul's Cathedral

#2sur 10 lieux à visiter à KolkataKolkata, Bengale-Occidental

Aussi appelé Cathedral Church of St. Paul · St. Paul's Cathedral Kolkata

L'essentiel

Horaires d'ouverture : 09:00–12:00 and 15:00–18:00, Sunday 07:30–18:00. Entrée : ₹10. Comptez 45 min. Meilleure période : 09:00 – 10:30.

Mis à jour le 18 septembre 2026 · Rédigé par Traveliac, avec assistance IA · 4 min de lecture

ItinéraireSite officiel

Photo: Ankitesh Jha / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Horaires d'ouverture: 09:00–18:00; Monday – Saturday: 09:00 – 12:00 and 15:00 – 18:00; Sunday: 07:30 – 18:00 for services and viewing
Prix d'entrée: ₹10; Billet à partir de
Durée nécessaire: 45 min
Meilleur moment de la journée: 09:00 – 10:30
Meilleurs mois: Oct – Mar
Adresse: 1, Cathedral Road, Maidan, Kolkata, West Bengal 700071

À propos de St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral was consecrated on 8 October 1847 as the first Anglican cathedral built outside Great Britain and remains the seat of the Diocese of Calcutta under the Church of North India as of 2026. Major William Nairn Forbes, a military engineer, and architect C. K. Robison designed the building in an Indo-Gothic style that borrows its tower and spire proportions from Norwich Cathedral while substituting lightweight, high-compression bricks and Chunar sandstone ashlar for the solid stone construction unworkable in Calcutta's climate and soil. The 201-foot spire has been rebuilt twice, after earthquakes in 1897 and 1934 brought the original tower down, with the second reconstruction modelled instead on the Bell Harry tower of Canterbury Cathedral. Inside, the west window was made by Morris & Co. to a design by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and two Florentine-style frescoes flank the chancel — decorative choices that place a distinctly English artistic movement inside a building adapted for a Bengal monsoon.

Meilleur moment de la journée : 09:00 – 10:30. When morning light through the Burne-Jones west window is strongest and the nave is uncrowded ahead of tour groups arriving from Victoria Memorial.

Horaires de St. Paul's Cathedral

St. Paul's Cathedral est ouvert 09:00–12:00 and 15:00–18:00. Le samedi, il est ouvert 09:00–12:00 and 15:00–18:00 et le dimanche 07:30–18:00.

Horaires d'ouverture: 09:00–18:00; Mon–Sat 09:00–12:00 and 15:00–18:00
Sunday 07:30–18:00; Monday – Saturday: 09:00 – 12:00 and 15:00 – 18:00; Sunday: 07:30 – 18:00 for services and viewing
Fermé le: Ouvert tous les jours

Mon–Sat	09:00–12:00 and 15:00–18:00
Sunday	07:30–18:00

Horaires d'ouverture établis à partir de wbtourism.gov.in et de sources publiques, mis à jour le 18 septembre 2026. Ils peuvent changer sans préavis — vérifiez avant de partir. Comment nous rédigeons ces guides

Prix d'entrée de St. Paul's Cathedral

Entry fees for St. Paul's Cathedral
Billet	Prix
Visiteurs indiens	₹10
Visiteurs étrangers	₹10
Enfants	Gratuit
Caméra	Gratuit

A nominal ₹10 entry donation applies to visitors outside service hours; the cathedral is free to enter for anyone attending a scheduled service. As of 2026, verify at the counter, since this donation was introduced relatively recently to fund upkeep.

Tarifs établis à partir de wbtourism.gov.in et de sources publiques, mis à jour le 18 septembre 2026. Ils peuvent changer sans préavis — vérifiez avant de partir. Comment nous rédigeons ces guides

Meilleure période pour visiter St. Paul's Cathedral

Quiet
Moderate
Busy

09:00 – 10:30
Morning OpeningBest time to go
Best light through the Burne-Jones window; independent visitors outnumber tour groups at this hour.
Quiet
11:00 – 12:00
Late Morning Tour Groups
Coach parties arriving from Victoria Memorial or the Indian Museum begin filling the nave in short bursts.
Moderate
15:00 – 16:30
Afternoon Reopening
Cathedral reopens after the midday closure; quiet enough for unhurried viewing of the frescoes and altar plate.
Quiet
07:30 – 09:30 (Sunday)
Sunday Service
Regular congregation fills much of the nave; visitors are welcome to observe quietly from the rear pews.
Busy

Histoire de St. Paul's Cathedral

The Calcutta congregation had outgrown St. John's Church by the 1830s, and Bishop Daniel Wilson pushed for a new cathedral funded substantially through public subscription among the British mercantile and administrative community. The foundation stone was laid on 8 October 1839, and construction continued for eight years using bricks specifically engineered to be lighter than standard stone while retaining sufficient compressive strength for the tower's height — an early instance of material innovation driven by the practical demands of building tall in Bengal's alluvial soil. Queen Victoria sent ten pieces of silver-gilt altar plate to mark the 1847 consecration, a gift still held by the cathedral. The original steeple, structurally weaker than the nave beneath it, collapsed in the 1897 earthquake and was rebuilt only to fall again in the far more destructive 1934 earthquake that damaged buildings across eastern India; the second and current reconstruction, completed to a revised design referencing Canterbury Cathedral's Bell Harry tower, has stood since without major structural incident. Post-independence, the cathedral's status shifted from a colonial administrative church to the seat of an Indian diocese within the Church of North India, formed in 1970 by the union of several Protestant denominations.

Règles et étiquette à St. Paul's Cathedral

Modest dress is expected throughout the cathedral grounds, and visitors arriving mid-service should wait at the rear rather than walk the nave while worship is in progress. Photography is generally permitted in the nave and gardens but flash photography near the Burne-Jones window and the older stained glass is discouraged, since UV and heat exposure accelerate the fading of centuries-old pigment. The cathedral shares its Maidan-facing grounds with Victoria Memorial's gardens, and the shortest walking route between the two crosses an active traffic roundabout, so use the pedestrian crossing rather than cut across the grass median. Sunday services draw a mixed congregation of long-standing Anglo-Indian families and newer CNI parishioners, and visitors are welcome to sit quietly at the back during a service without participating in communion.

Conseils pour visiter St. Paul's Cathedral

1
Pair the cathedral with Victoria Memorial and the Indian Museum for a single Chowringhee-area morning circuit — all three sit within a fifteen-minute walk of each other around the Maidan's eastern edge. The cathedral's gardens, planted with mature rain trees, are a genuinely quiet spot to sit even outside visiting hours, since the boundary wall mutes most of the Maidan's traffic noise. Weekday mornings before 10:30 offer the best light through the west window and the fewest overlapping tour groups; by contrast, arriving after 11:00 on a weekend often means sharing the nave with two or three coach parties at once. The cathedral's small gift counter sells a printed history booklet covering the two earthquake reconstructions in more architectural detail than any signage inside the building provides.

Comment se rendre à St. Paul's Cathedral

L'étoile rouge indique St. Paul's Cathedral ; les repères numérotés sont les 8 lieux les plus proches de nos guides, chacun avec son classement dans sa ville. Touchez un repère pour plus de détails.

1, Cathedral Road, Maidan, Kolkata, West Bengal 700071Itinéraire sur Google Maps

Depuis Maidan Metro Station (Blue Line)
₹20–₹30
0.7 km · 9–12 min
Metro fare from Esplanade
Depuis Park Street
1.3 km · 15 min walk / 6–8 min taxi
Free (walk) or ₹60–₹90 (taxi)
Depuis Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport
₹450–₹650
18 km · 40–65 min

Aéroport le plus proche

Depuis Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport (CCU)

18 km, approximately 40–65 minutes.

Gare la plus proche

Depuis Maidan Metro Station (Blue Line)

700 m.

FAQ — St. Paul's Cathedral

Is there an entry fee for St. Paul's Cathedral?

A nominal ₹10 donation is requested from visitors outside service hours, as of 2026. Entry is free for anyone attending a scheduled service, and children are not charged separately.

Has the cathedral's spire been rebuilt more than once?

Yes, twice. Earthquakes in 1897 and 1934 both brought down the original tower. The current spire follows a design referencing Canterbury Cathedral's Bell Harry tower rather than the cathedral's original Norwich-inspired steeple.

Is the west window a genuine Burne-Jones design?

Yes. The west window was manufactured by Morris & Co. to a design by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones, making it one of the few authenticated works by his studio on permanent public display in India.

Can the cathedral be visited alongside Victoria Memorial in one trip?

Yes. Both sit on the eastern edge of the Maidan within a fifteen-minute walk of each other and of the Indian Museum, making a single morning circuit straightforward on foot.

Rédigé avec l'assistance de l'IA à partir de sources officielles et de registres publics, et publié seulement après les vérifications décrites dans Comment nous rédigeons ces guides. Personne chez Traveliac ne s'est rendu sur place. Mis à jour le 18 septembre 2026. Comment nous classons et vérifions les lieux