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| Happy Christmas greetings .printablee.com |
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| St. Mary's church, Lansdowne during winter, /en.wikipedia.org |
Above image; Credit: Mishra.vishesh620 -
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| Colonial St. Mary's church, Lansdowne, UK redroofresort.com |
Lansdowne, a Cantonment town in Pauri Garhwal district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, is a popular, off-beat hill station. Situated at an altitude of 1,706 meter (5,686 feet) above the mean sea level surrounded by thick oak and blue pine forests, lots of tourists come here for relaxation during the summer season.
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| Viceroy of India, Lord Marquis of Lansdowne Alamy.com |
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| Hetitage tree during Lord Lansdowne' visit. Alamy.com |
Above image: English sign - English Heritage Tree Marquis of Lansdowne Viceroy of India Liriodendron Tulipifera Himachal Pradesh India
It was founded and named after the then Viceroy of India Lord Marquis Lansdowne (14 January 1845 - 3 June 1927), a British statesman who served successively as the fifth Governor General of Canada and Viceroy of India (1888-1894). This small cantonment hill town with alpine forest around is home to the Garhwal Rifles and the military people keep the place fairly clean and preserve the old charm.
St. Mary's Church:
One of the earliest Anglican Catholic churches in India, St. Mary's was built in 1895 by one A.H.B. Hume of the Royal Engineers of British India. As the British community on this hill station became larger the church was built to serve them as well as the European officers in the British Army. Quite impressed with the pristine nature of the hill station Hume, a historian who used to visit this place felt the necessity of building a Catholic church here to serve the Europeans. It is in the Tip N Top point about 2.5 km from Lansdowne town
There was a military training center for the new recruits of the Garhwal Rifles under the British and it is still active now. This church was closed after 1947 India's freedom. Later the church was converted into a museum by the Garhwal Rifles Regimental Centre.
This Church with its old Victorian style architecture attracts a large number of visitors because of its beautiful stained glass windows. It has a picture gallery and a short 10 minute documentary on history of Lansdowne and Garhwal Rifles It is open only on the weekends.
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| Lansdowne Hill Station, Uttarakhand bontravelindia.com |
The old Church was restored by the Garhwal Rifles. But the church needs a through restoration without losing its heritage value. The church itself not active because of constraints related to defence and Indian military
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