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Kochi, previously known as Cochin, is a series of narrow islands and peninsulas around a salt water lagoon of the Arabian Sea. There is a natural harbour which resulted in the region being an important port on the spice route, attracting first the Portuguese, Dutch and then British and their influences are all around. The modern commercial centre on the mainland is called Ernakulam, while the earlier sections of the city are called Fort Kochi as the Portuguese had built a fort in the area early in their occupation. We had a guide tour around some of the key buildings and site of Fort Kochi.
This
is St Francis Church, which is believed to be the first European built Church in
India. The Portuguese first built a wooden structure in 1503, though a
stone church was built about 50 years later. Vasco da Gama was buried here
in 1524 and remained there for 14 years until his body was returned to Portugal.
The
Dutch captured Kochi in 1663 and restored the church much later
(1779) as a Protestant Church. Not long after the British came to
control (1795) so it became an Anglican Church before coming under the control
of the Church of South India in the last century.
The church includes an old air conditioning system of straw flaps that could be doused in water and then pulled back and forth by men outside the church. They run along the length of the nave a few feet above the pews, the straw is now protected by muslin covers.
Kochi also had a large settlement of Jewish residents. Jews first came to Kerala in the 1st century like the Christians. With the arrival of the Portuguese they suffered from persecution and the Indian rulers granted them land within Kochi. The Paradesi Synagogue was built in 1568. While in 1940 there were about 2500 Jewish residents, only a handful of families remain. This is because the majority decided to move to Israel when the State was founded.
Behind the red curtains is where the Torah is stored. The floor is covered
with hand-painted willow-pattern tiles imported from Canton in the mid-18th
century. The glass chandeliers were imported from Europe.
Around the Synagogue are a number of narrow streets with Dutch-style homes.
During the tour we also saw the Chinese fishing nets, which are described on the next page.