Question

Analyze the photo below and answer the question that follows.

A building with European medieval architecture in India.
Image by Michael Janich

The building in the photo above is located in India but has European-style architecture. Why?

Answer 1

Because it wasn’t built in medieval Europe — it was built (or rebuilt) in a European revival style while India was under European influence. During the 18th–20th centuries British, Portuguese and other Europeans brought Gothic/Tudor/neo‑Gothic and other “medieval” styles to India; British architects designed public buildings, rail stations, courts and churches in those styles, and Indian princes and wealthy patrons often had palaces built to the same fashions (to show status, modernity and alliance with the rulers).

So the “European medieval” look comes from colonial-era and revivalist architecture (examples: Bangalore Palace in Tudor style, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus in Victorian Gothic, many churches and forts in Goa), not from actual medieval Europe being transplanted to India.