"In nineteenth-century Calcutta, a financially strong Indian elite emerged under the rule of the British East India Company, building up eclectic Bengali equivalents of industrialists' mansions, apparent stylistic blends of traditional Mogul architecture with more classical elements. Today, the erstwhile magnificent villas and palaces retain only a trace of their former splendor, and it seems only a matter of time before the last stone remnants of a once brilliant Bengali upper middle class disappear for good. Under the guidance of Peter Bialobrzeski, twenty-one photography students from the University of the Arts Bremen captured the fading, crumbling grandeur of this culturally rich heirloom as part of the Kolkata Heritage photo Project."--Jacket.