Tour package to the 417-year-old Bandel Church on the banks of the Hooghly river

The West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation (WBTDC) has announced a special chartered bus service for tourists that would take them on a tour of the 417-year-old Bandel Church on the banks of the Hooghly river and the Mother House apart from well known churches of Kolkata on Christmas eve.
This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 23 December 2016.

The iconic Bandel Church is one of the oldest churches in eastern India. It had been founded in 1599 by Augustinian monks and, visitors to the church will be greeted with a unique display of light, music and water. As Prior of Bandel Church, Salesian Fr T L Francis has revealed - every year more than 100,000 visitors, cutting across religious beliefs, visit the Bandel Church during the Christmas season. An added attraction this year would be a colorful display of light, sound and water at the newly erected musical fountain.
The visitors can see larger-than-life sized statues of popular Christian saints like Mother Mary, Mother Teresa, Don Bosco, St Joseph, St Francis Xavier and others. There is also the life size Station of The Cross depicting 14 scenes from the final hours of Jesus's life with 54 statues and a Christmas crib depicting the birth of Jesus. Then there is the nine-feet statue of Jesus Christ with open arms in front of the Bandel shrine.
Yet another attraction is the historic 'Mast' from which the Church and the town get their name and a renovated grand 'doorway' that leads to the Church's precincts.
The mast of the Portuguese ship was a votive offering to the Church from the captain of the ship that was miraculously saved in a tempest in the Bay of Bengal in 1655. The mast has been declared a heritage item by the Archaeological Survey of India. The mast had fallen down in a storm in 2010 and has been restored last year.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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