Belvedere House, now the National Library of India which is located in Alipore, India, was built in the days of the Raj. It was one of the buildings which Mir Jafar built in the 1760s in Alipore after he was forced to abdicate his throne in Murshidabad. The complex now includes within it, two housing colonies built by the government, one being for National Library of India employees, and the other for central government employees. The main building is under the care of the Archaeological Survey of India. It has always been reputed to be haunted but the recent discovery of a secret chamber in the building has added more mystery to the premises. The archaeologists who discovered it have no clue how to open it, their theories range from a torture chamber, or a sealed tomb for an unfortunate soul or the most favoured of all a treasure room.
Originally Belvedere House was a former palace of Viceroy of India and later the Governor of Bengal. From 1854 to 1911, Belvedere housed a number of Lt Governors till the British capital shifted to Delhi.
Supernatural activity reported throughout the years include lights being turned on and off in the ballroom, ghostly carriages thundering up the drive and ghostly figures seen flitting around the rooms.
In 2010, a mysterious room has been discovered in the 250-year-old building a room that no one knew about and no one can enter because it seems to have no opening of kind, not even trapdoors. A lot of effort has been made to locate an opening so that experts can find out exactly what it was built for or what it contains. But there is not a single crack to show.
Tapan Bhattacharya, the deputy superintending archaeologist of ASI said, that they have searched every inch of the first floor area that forms the ceiling of this enclosure for a possible trap door. But found nothing. Restoration of the building will remain incomplete if they are not able to assess what lies inside this enclosure.
Sources:
Paranormal Magazine Issue 56, February 2011: "Sightings - Secret Chamber";
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Secret-chamber-in-National-Library/articleshow/6957358.cms;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belvedere_Estate
Pic Source:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/India_Education.jpg
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| The Belvedere House |
Originally Belvedere House was a former palace of Viceroy of India and later the Governor of Bengal. From 1854 to 1911, Belvedere housed a number of Lt Governors till the British capital shifted to Delhi.
Supernatural activity reported throughout the years include lights being turned on and off in the ballroom, ghostly carriages thundering up the drive and ghostly figures seen flitting around the rooms.
In 2010, a mysterious room has been discovered in the 250-year-old building a room that no one knew about and no one can enter because it seems to have no opening of kind, not even trapdoors. A lot of effort has been made to locate an opening so that experts can find out exactly what it was built for or what it contains. But there is not a single crack to show.
Tapan Bhattacharya, the deputy superintending archaeologist of ASI said, that they have searched every inch of the first floor area that forms the ceiling of this enclosure for a possible trap door. But found nothing. Restoration of the building will remain incomplete if they are not able to assess what lies inside this enclosure.
Sources:
Paranormal Magazine Issue 56, February 2011: "Sightings - Secret Chamber";
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Secret-chamber-in-National-Library/articleshow/6957358.cms;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belvedere_Estate
Pic Source:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/India_Education.jpg
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