Fort Kochi

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Cheena vala (Chinese fishing net)

A municipal town from 1866 to 1967, Fort Kochi now is one of the three main urban components that constitute the present day City of Kochi in the Indian State of Kerala, the other two being Mattancherry and Ernakulam. In 1967, these three municipalities, along with a few adjoining areas, were amalgamated to form the new Corporation of Kochi.

Once a fishing village of no significance in the Kingdom of Kochi in the pre-colonial Kerala, the territory later to be known as Fort Kochi was granted to the Portuguese in 1503 by the Rajah of Kochi who gave them also permission to built a fort near the waterfront to protect their commercial interests. The first part of the name Fort Kochi comes from this fort, Fort Emmanuel, which was later destroyed by the Dutch. Behind the fort, the Portuguese built their settlement and a wooden church, which was rebuilt in 1516 as a permanent structure and which today is known as the St Francis Church. Fort Kochi remained a Portuguese possession for 160 years. In 1683 the Dutch captured the territory from the Portuguese, destroyed many Portuguese, particularly Catholic, institutions including convents. The Dutch held Fort Kochi as their possession for 112 years until 1795, when the British took control by defeating the Dutch. Four hundred and fourty four years of foreign control of Fort Kochi ended in 1947 with the Indian independence.

A mix of old Portuguese, Dutch and British houses from these colonial periods line the streets of Fort Kochi. One of the landmarks is the St Francis Church, built in 1503 by the Portuguese as a Catholic church and where Vasco da Gama was once buried, now used by the Church of South India. It is now one of the national monuments of India. Another is the Catholic church, Santa Cruz Basilica, also built by the Portuguese in the 1500s, later destroyed by the British and rebuilt near the end of 19th century. The landmark that causes perhaps the most public and visitor interest is a series of the pre-colonial Chinese fishing nets on the waterfront, believed to have been introduced by Chinese traders in the early 1300s.