Belvedere Estate

Illustration of Belvedere House, 1838, by the Anglo-Indian merchant and artist William Prinsep. The estate belonged to the family, who sold it to the East India Company in 1854.

The Belvedere Estate consists of Belvedere House and the 30-acre (12 ha) grounds surrounding it. It is located in Alipore, near the zoo, in Kolkata. In 1858, after the Governor-General moved out, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal took up residence in Belvedere House. When the capital moved from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, who had hitherto resided in Belvedere House, was upgraded to a full governor and transferred to Government House. Belvedere House has been the home of the National Library of India since 1948.