Designed in the Indo-Saracenic style in 1917 by Joseph Munnings and built by Martin Burn, the Old Secretariat serves as the administrative headquarters of the Bihar Government. 
The key features of this building complex are the Clock Tower and the bronze statue of the first Chief Minister of Bihar, Sri Krishna Sinha.

The tall clock tower adorns the complex’s lush gardens. Originally standing to a height of 198 feet, part of it fell in the 1934 earthquake and it now stands 184 feet tall. Legend says that the sound of the clock could be heard to the corners of the city when Patna’s population was a little over a lakh.

The building is designed with red-tiled mansard roofs, named after French architect F Mansart. The central arched section is linked to two buildings on either side thus giving the entire building the T shape. Also known as the Patna Sachivalaya, it houses numerous administrative departments of the state government. 

Close to the Old Secretariat is the Martyrs Memorial which commemorates the sacrifice of the seven students who were shot during the Quit India Movement.

The Martyrs Memorial or Shaheed Smarak, a life-sized installation, cast in bronze, is a testament to the events that occurred in Patna during the Quit India Movement in 1942.

On the 11th of August, 1942, six thousand students from Patna went up against the British Military Forces, and as a form of protest, stormed the building today known as the Old Secretariat. They had a singular aim - to hoist the Indian national flag atop the Secretariat. Seven of these students, the youngest aged fifteen, were martyred before they could succeed, but it is said that an eighth student, disguised as a gardener, took up his compatriots’ cause, and successfully hoisted the flag at the Secretariat.

The foundation stone for this memorial was laid on the 15th of August,1947 and the statue that is installed there was designed by Deviprasad Roychaudhary.

This 20th-century palace was the official residence of the prominent lawyer and later Judge, Sir Sultan Ahmed. Built in the year 1922, over a sprawling 10 acres of land, this elegant red-and-white building is accentuated with arches, minarets, and cupolas or chhatris. This magnificent building was constructed at a cost of Rs 3 Lakhs. 

The Sultan Palace also had a zenana or a separate section for women to live in. The most interesting area of the palace is the drawing room with a beautifully ornamented ceiling which is painted with golden powder.

The Golghar, or the Round House, a tall and imposing structure, is a remnant of the British administration in Patna.
Commissioned in 1786 by the then Governor-General Warren Hastings, and designed and built by Captain John Garstin, the Golghar was a granary, built specifically to store food grains, in the hopes that this would prevent famines like the one that had impacted Patna in 1770.

While the granary was built in the 18th century, its conical, stupa-like structure is similar to the older monuments that dot the landscape of Patna.
A spiral stairway of 145 steps leads to the top of this granary. An opening at the summit allowed workers to deposit grain into the granary. Today, a climb to the top of the Golghar rewards one with a beautiful and clear view of the city of Patna.

Decorated with high ceilings and hanging skylights, the Patna Collectorate was built by the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) or the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch used it as a godown for trade and it also functioned as a Court of Appeal. 

Patna’s strategic location as a riverine port soon turned it into a major centre of trade for opium and saltpeter. The French Merchant, Jean Baptiste Tavernier on his visit to the city in 1666 talks of a ‘house’ of the Dutch which they had setup for their trade in saltpeter - locally available in the region. The building that houses the Collectorate now was one such complex that belonged to the Dutch. However, it was given to the British as part of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824.

Post 1857, the building became the Collectorate of the city. It also functioned as an observation station during the Great Trigonometrical Survey. The Dutch and the British, both contributed to this complex. The structures dating to the Dutch era are the Record Room, the oldest building in the complex embellished with a colonnaded facade and Tuscan columns and the Old District Engineer's Office. The District Board building, on the other hand, was constructed during the British period.

Darbhanga House, also known as Navlakha Palace is one of the many palaces of the Darbhanga dynasty. Situated on the banks of the River Ganga, the palace is divided into two - Queen’s Block and King’s Block. At the centre of the complex is a temple dedicated to Goddess Kali, around which the building is constructed. 

The fish symbol of the dynasty can be found in many parts of the building even today. The palace was donated to Patna University by Maharaja Rameshwar Singh and today it is used for conducting classes. The building houses the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences where various subjects such as philosophy, history, economics and languages such as Bengali and Marathi are taught.

Raj Bhavan, currently the official residence of the Governor of Bihar, has been home to many dignitaries in the past. 

After the Delhi Durbar of 1911, a separate province of Bihar and Orissa was formed with Patna as its capital. New buildings such as the Raj Bhawan were commissioned for this newly formed capital. The New Zealand-born architect, Joseph Fearis Munnings was given the responsibility of designing Raj Bhavan. 

Its construction began in 1912 and was finally completed in 1917. For three years it functioned as the official residence of Lt. Governor of Bihar and Orissa but from 1920 to 1936 it was made the residence of the Governor of Bihar. 

Built in the neoclassical style, Raj Bhavan is a three-storied structure. The ground floor consists of offices and the Darbar Hall, the first-floor houses reception rooms and the second floor has rooms for the family members. The building was equipped with many features such as lifts, marble fireplaces and electric ceiling fans. The electric fans were considered a luxury at the time. The architectural highlights of Raj Bhavan are the Ionic columns of the ground floor and Corinthian columns found on the upper storey. The arched open corridors and ventilation spaces help in keeping the space cool.

Located close to Kumrahar is another archaeological site that speaks of Patna’s historic past. This site, excavated in the early twentieth century, revealed the presence of wooden fortifications that date back to the 4th century BCE. Interestingly, Megasthenes - the Greek Ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya - has written about a fortified Pataliputra in his book ‘Indica’. 

The exposed structure consisted of two parallel walls of wooden palisades placed about twelve feet apart. At the lower level of the site, horizontally placed long sal wood sleepers were found. Their ends were connected to the sockets on the upright beams of the wall. These beams rest on a 5 feet deep bed of pebble (kankar) which lies below the horizontal beams. Along the palisades, on either side is a drain. The drain too had wooden walls and at the bottom were wooden planks. The height and width of this wooden drain were about six feet and three feet respectively. 

Significant antiquities recovered from this site are terracotta female figurines with curious coiffures and headdresses, and a chariot wheel of wooden spokes and hub. Other finds include metallic swords, arrowheads, knives, hair ornaments, coins, and pottery.

Kumhrar is an excavated archaeological site representing the ruins of ancient Pataliputra. The most important structure at this site is the eighty-pillared hall from the Mauryan period. It is believed to have been the conference hall for the third Buddhist council held at Pataliputra in the 3rd century BCE during the time of Ashoka. 

The pillars of this hall were arranged in parallel rows of ten from east to west and rows of eight from north to south. To the south lies the pillared entrance porch. While the floor and the roof of the hall were made of wood, the monolithic pillars were carved out of buff-coloured chunar sandstone. These pillars are placed at regular intervals of about fifteen feet from each other. 

To the south-west of the pillared hall were found a few brick structures of the Gupta period (4th-5th century CE).  Based on the seals and pottery found here, archaeologists have identified this structure as Arogya Vihara - a Buddhist monastery-cum-hospital.  Antiquities recovered from this monastery include copper coins, ornaments, stone and terracotta beads, seals and sealings, terracotta human and animal figurines and skin scrubbers. 

Apart from these two structures, fragments of Ashokan pillars and Buddhist railings such as coping and crossbars were also found from the site.

Agam Kuan is the name given to an ancient well in the Gulzarbagh area of Patna. The name ‘Agam Kuan’ literally means unfathomable well. It was so named because the locals believed that the well reaches down to patala or hell and could never be measured.

The well is often associated with Ashoka’s hell about which Hieun Tsang has mentioned in his accounts. It is said that the well was used to punish prisoners and had fiery cauldrons and ovens. Today, however, the purpose of the well has changed and it has attained a sacred identity.  It is held sacred by the Hindus who make offerings of money and flowers into it and pray for protection against smallpox. A temple of Sheetala Mata or Sheetala Devi has also been constructed close to this well. Although the well is venerated, its water is not used for drinking. 

It is a circular well with a diameter of about 20 feet, enclosed by a 10 feet high brick wall with eight arches at regular intervals. Contrary to the local belief of this unmeasurable well, its brick work ends at a depth of 44 feet and it is said to have a depth of about 20 feet beyond this.

This mosque gets its name from the material used to build it - Patthar (stone). Located in the Sultanganj area, it is made primarily of stone and is said to be built by Mahabat Khan, a general of Parwez Shah. Parwez Shah, the son of Mughal Emperor Jahangir who ruled over the city in the early seventeenth century is said to have commemorated his rule by getting this mosque constructed in 1626.

The sleek Gandhi Setu of Patna, is nearly six kilometres long, making it the third-longest bridge in the country, after the Bhupen Hazarika Bridge that connects Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, and the Sisseri Bridge in Arunachal Pradesh
Inaugurated in 1982, the bridge over the river Ganga connects the city of Patna to the rapidly-developing city of Hajipur, that lies a mere 10 kilometres across the river from Patna.

Padri ki Haveli is an eighteenth-century Christian shrine in Patna and the oldest Roman Catholic church in Bihar. Also known as the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it is located in a mohallah which is named after this landmark religious edifice. 

It is believed that at the same place once existed a small church built in 1713. However, the church was destroyed by William Ellis (the Chief of Company’s factory in Patna) in his attempt to take control over the city in 1763. 

The present structure was designed by a Venetian architect, Tiretto. Its construction was commenced by Father Joseph of Rovato on 18th October 1772 and it took about seven years for its completion. It was formally opened on 8th December 1779. 

The Cathedral looks majestic with its imposing facade and tall columns in the Ionic style of ancient Greek architecture. The interiors are designed in the Corinthian style. The most popular feature is the large Cathedral bell, ‘Maria’.  According to the inscription on the bell, it was a gift presented by Bahadur Shah, son of Prithvi Narayan Shah, the Maharaja of Nepal in 1782. 

In 1939, the Holy Family Hospital was founded here and in 1948, Mother Teresa had stayed here for three months during her medical training.

This mosque is situated on the Ashok Rajpath road and is probably the second oldest religious structure in Patna which is in use even today. One of the oldest mosques in the city, the Begu Hajjam’s Mosque was built by Khan-i-Azam Muazzam Nasir Khan, an official of Allauddin Shah (the Sultan of Gaur) in 1510 AD. However, this mosque came to be known by the name of a barber - Begu Hajjam, who later repaired it in 1646 AD. 

The courtyard of the mosque was originally laid out with glazed tiles of Gaur which have now withered with time. A key feature of this mosque was the beautifully carved stone doorway on the south-western side of the mosque which today lies in a dilapidated condition.

This beautiful mosque, situated in the Shikarpur area of Patna City was built by Mir Ashraf in 1773. Mir Ashraf was the Gumasta or the Indian agent of the East India Company.
 
A three-domed structure, this mosque is an example of late Mughal architecture. Within the premises of the mosque is the ablution tank and a well. The ablution tank has a unique design with cusped walls, giving it the shape of a flower. The water in the tank is no more usable, hence, water for ablution is drawn from the well. 

Today, this mosque is locally known as Kabootaron ka Dhera for the number of pigeons that visit this mosque. 

Close to the mosque are buried Mir Afzal and Mir Ashraf himself. Mir Afzal, a prominent trader of the time is said to be Mir Ashraf’s father who died in 1760. 15 years later, his son was buried next to him. 

Located in the Jhauganj area of Patna city, the Harmandir Sahib is the most sacred place of Sikhs in Bihar and one of the most venerated pilgrimage centres after the Golden Temple in Amritsar. It is believed that earlier at this spot there was a haveli whose owner converted to Sikhism at the behest of Guru Nanak Sahib and transformed it into a dharamsala from where he carried on the work of propagating religion. Most importantly, it marks the place where Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the tenth and last Guru of Sikhs was born in 1666. 

The present Gurudwara and its gateway are made of marble. The prized possessions of the Gurudwara are the Guru Granth Sahib or Bade Sahib and the Chhabi Sahib - an oil painting of young Guru Gobind Singh Ji. The Guru Granth Sahib has the signature of Guru Gobind Singh ji, written with the point of an arrow. 
Other possessions include Guru’s cradle, His ivory shoes, sandalwood shoes of Guru Tegh Bahadur (Father of Guru Gobind Singh Ji), Bagh Nakha Khanjar (dagger), wooden spinning looms of Sant Kabir, a book of Hukumnamas of Guru Hargobind Singh Ji, Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, Guru Gobind Singh Ji and a few others.

The Patan Devi temple in Patna is one of the 51 Shakti Pithas located in various parts of India. Originally called Maa Sarvanand Kari Patneshwari, the temple is said to be the abode of Goddess Durga under the name Patana. Many also believe that Patna gets its name from this temple.

Popular legends talk about the establishment of this temple. It is said that when Devi Sati’s father insulted her husband, she threw herself into the sacred fire (yagna) conducted by her own father. Angered, Lord Shiva, took the corpse of the Devi in his hand and started performing the Tandava (the Dance of Destruction). To calm Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu chopped off Devi Sati’s corpse with his Sudarshan Chakra. The place where her right thigh fell is where the Patan Devi Temple was established. 

Patna has two shrines dedicated to the Goddess, one in Maharajganj area called the Badi Patan Devi temple and the other in Chowk area called the Chhoti Patan Devi Temple. 

Some believe that the Chhoti Patan Devi Temple predates the Badi Patan Devi Temple. Buchanan, a scientific explorer on his visit to Patna in the 1800s, writes about the popularity of the Choti Patan Devi Temple compared to the other. Today, these two shrines attract a large number of devotees especially during the month of Navratri.

Sher Shah Suri mosque is one of the oldest Islamic shrines in Patna, built in the style of Indo- Afghan architecture. Located close to the Purvi Darwaza (eastern gate) in the Haziganj area, it was built by Sher Shah Suri who had transferred the provincial capital from Bihar Sharif to Patna in 1541 CE. Made of brick and plaster, this mosque has a large central hall surrounded by galleries on all four sides. Over the central hall is a semi-circular dome, and on either side are similar domes, slightly smaller in size. The exterior is ornamented with several small niches.

In the premises, there is a grave of Muhammad Murad Shahanshah Sufi with the date A.H. 99 corresponding to 1543 CE which confirms the local tradition that the mosque was built during Sher Shah’s period (1540-45). Within the premises of the mosque are several other tombs that belong to later dates.