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| Chinsurah Gustavuvus fort WB .facebook.com |
Chinsurah town,35 km from north Kolkata, on the banks of the Hooghly river is an ideal place for dong business and once had a strong Portuguese, Dutch and English influences and the town used to be a multicultural town.
Bengal was, in the 17th century CE, a big center for trade in sugar, indigo and European traders from Portugal, France and Holland made a beeline to this fertile place to start business. The Dutch East India company started a factory in the Dutch settlement and later fortified it for security reasons
After 1740, the VOC's director of Bengal, Jan Albert Sichterman, commissioned a fort in Chinsurah to strengthen their presence and to protect their interests here.. The fort, with four corner bastions, was named Gustavus after the governor-general, Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff. Fort Gustavas, included Dutch factories, offices, etc. Dutch expanded their business into silk clothes, etc. They opened a silk factory in Kasim Bazar and a garden south of Chandannagar. Now, they are gone.
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| Former British barracks anilvohraphotography.wordpress.com |
The huge house with large frontage and many windows built by the Dutch served as the residence of the Dutch Governor of Chinsurah. The original building came up in 1744 and was named Welgeleegen. The new building contains a plaque with the inscription VOC (Vereenigde Ostindische Companie, meaning Dutch East India Company) 1687.
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| Chinsurah garrison dutchindianheritage.net |
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| Chinsurah garrison dutchindianheritage.net |
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| British barracks, stairway, chinsurah. dutchindianheritage.net |
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| British barracks, chinsurah, WB dutchinchinsurah.in |
Above image: British barracks, Chinsurah, WB- look at the louvre doors ..........................
When ceded to the English in the 19th-century, the EIC in in 1827 pulled down the building and rebuilt a new building to serve as the residence of divisional commissioner of Burdwan Later it was converted into a big barrack to station British troops to protect the British interest and also to accommodate newly arriving troops from England.
The British Barracks, is a good example of military engineering. Begun in 1827 by Lt, J.A.C. Crommel, executive engineer, the work was over by 1829 by Cap. William Campbell, artillery executive officer. The 266 meter long symmetrical masonry building with smi arched opening on the ground floor and deep verandah facing the Maidan was built with proper planning. The barracks has a wooden stairway with railing made of teak wood and large louver window doors for better ventilation.
The barrack in the Fort Gustavus was later expanded to meet additional needs. The 200 year old building later formed the Hooghly Madrassa which was financed by Sir Syed, a charitable man
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| Fort Gustavus part of it is a court,Chinsurah n.worldorgs.com |
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| Hooghly Madrasha, formally the Dutch Barrack angandatta.wordpress.com |
Today it is part of the buildings of the Hooghly Madrasah, a 19th century construction raised on the remains of the fortification.Four old Dutch cannons can still be found on the properties of the College. Now it is only fully Govt. sponsored Madrasa and administered directly by the education department of West Bengal- Department of School Education.
https://anilvohraphotography.wordpress.com/2015/09/17/chinsurah/
https://dutchindianheritage.net/chinsurah-dutch-heritage-1989-and-later/
.jpg&description=Fort Gustavus built by the Dutch at Chinsurah, West Bengal. later EIC rebuilt barracks -colonial vestiges){kind=link}