Chandrakona

A “temple town” in the same breath as Bishnupur and Ambika Kalna, and like them once a serious centre of art, trade and royal patronage. The settlement takes its name from Raja Chandraketu, an early ruler, but its great period was under the Bhan dynasty of the 16th and 17th centuries, who reportedly oversaw a town of fifty-two markets connected by fifty-three streets. In its prime it rivalled Bishnupur. The arrival of the East India Company in 1760 broke its textile economy, and the slow erosion has continued ever since. Roughly ninety temples once stood here; perhaps thirty are still recognisable, and the rest are mounds in mango groves.
Malleswar Shiva Temple is the obvious place to start, a pancharatna (five-pinnacled) shrine and one of the oldest surviving in the town, offering a kind of master-key to the local idiom: laterite construction, a stepped plinth, and the characteristic Bengali habit of treating the towers as a vertical garden of small ornaments. Walk the perimeter before going inside.
Jor Bangla Temple in Dakshinbazaar, about 500m from Malleswar, is the quieter star, a 17th-century structure in the jor-bangla style (two hut-shaped chala roofs joined together), built in laterite by the Bhan dynasty and one of the earliest examples of this idiom anywhere in Bengal. The exterior carving is weathered but legible, and on a winter afternoon the place can feel like a private discovery.
Shantinath Temple at Mitrasenpur is the architectural high point of the visit and worth going out of your way for. A navaratna (nine-pinnacled) shrine with a triple-arched entrance, its façade is covered in some of the finest terracotta plaques in the district, depicting episodes from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, scenes of Krishna's life, dancers, musicians and slices of contemporary social life rendered with uncommon vivacity. Bring a torch and a long lens.
Raghunathbari was built in the manner of the great Bardhaman Raj complex at Ambika Kalna by Maharaja Tej Chand Rai — this temple complex once housed the Rameshwar Shiva Temple, a rasmancha, and the famed Raghunatha Temple with its towering shikhara. 
Chandrakona Rajbari, a few minutes' walk from Thakurbari Bazar, is what remains of the royal residence. The huge backyard is now used by the locals as grazing ground, the buildings are unfenced, and the small Hanuman temple in the compound is the only part still in active use. Atmospheric for those who like ruins; bring sturdy shoes and don't bring small children.
Other temples worth ticking off if you have the time: the Rasik Raya Temple (a damaged navaratna with relief work that hints at what it once was); the Ramachandra Temple with its terracotta panels; the small but well-kept Radha Krishna and Jhulan Bari shrines used by locals; and the three asthals, monastic establishments of the Sri Vaishnava Ramanuja order that hint at how cosmopolitan the religious culture of this place was in its prime.