Dhanyakuria was once part of the Sunderbans and thus covered in thick jungle and full of saline water bodies. The village was converted into a habitable settlement in 1742 when one Jagannath Das settled here with his family and cleared away the forests.

After Das put down roots in Dhanyakuria, the families of many other traders such as the Gaines, Sawoos, Ballavs, and Mandals too set up home in these idyllic parts. Their arrival coincided with the blossoming of plantations and increasing prosperity in the region. The thriving trade in rice and sugarcane, over time, allowed these settlers to build great mansions and baganbaris or ‘garden retreats’, influenced by medieval European architecture.

This vintage structure, called ‘Gaine Castle’, was built by Mahendranath Gaine, and was the baganbari or ‘garden retreat’ of the Gaine family before it was acquired by the West Bengal government in the 1960s. It is Dhanyakuria’s biggest attraction.

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