Week 50 - Fort Kochi

Some of the historically important places in Fort Kochi, Kerala, India.

The Jewish Synagogue.

The "Paradesi" Synagogue was build in 1568 by the cochin jewish people in the kingdom of cochin. It is called "paradesi" synagogue because it was used by the "white jews", a mixture of Jews from Cranganore, the Middle East, and European exiles. (The "black jews", they believe, descended from the oldest Jewish communities which settled in Kerala from AD 72 onwards when the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans). It was built adjacent to the Mattancherry Palace temple on the land gifted to the Malabari Yehuden community by the Raja of Kochi, Rama Varma.

The top of the Mattancherry palace temple and the Jew Synagogue.

The Mattancherry Palace temple and the Mattancherry synagogue share a common wall.

Koonan kurisu (The bent cross)

This is the place where the christianity in Kerala began splitting. The koonan kurisu was established in 1550 and the "koonan kurisu sathyagraham" (the bent cross vow) took place on 5-Jan-1655.

From the hypothesized arrival of St. Thomas in A.D. 52 till the Koonan Cross in 1655, the history of the Indian church is common. Not much is known about the early history of the St. Thomas Christians, but two facts stand out clearly. Between the 3rd and the 9th centuries there were waves of immigrants from Mesopotamia (corresponds to regions of modern Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran) to Kerala, and from the early centuries, this Church, with its liturgical center in Edessa, Mesopotamia, had also claimed its origin from St. Thomas. (As per Act of Thomas, St. Thomas started his preaching in Syria, so the immigrants might have been converted by him at Syria).

When the Portuguese came to India at the end of the 15th century, they were surprised to see christians (syrian) in Kerala. The syrian christians had connections with the churches in the Persian region. The portuguese, who were catholics, tried to convert the syrian christians to catholicism. They resorted to a number of tactics to achieve this. But when one of the Bishops from Syria was allegedly murdered by the Portuguese, the syrian christians gathered at this place and re-affirmed their allegiance to the Syrian Orthodox tradition. Families of Syrian Christians held on to a rope tied to this bent cross and swore never to convert into Catholicism.

These people now form the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, the Mar Thoma Church, and the Jacobite Church. The group who did not participate in the Koonan cross sathyagraham came under papal authority and are called the Syro-Malabar Church.

An antique shop on the Jew street.

Santa Cruz Basilica

This historic Church was built by the Portuguese and elevated to a Cathedral by Pope Paul IV in 1558. In 1795 it fell into the hands of the British when they took over Cochin, and was demolished. In 1887 Bishop Dom Gomes Ferreira commissioned a new building at the same site. The Church has since been proclaimed a Basilica in 1984 by Pope John Paul II.

St. Francis Church

Built in 1503 by Portuguese Franciscan Friars, this is India’s oldest European Church. Vasco da Gamma was buried here in 1524 before his remains were moved to Lisbon, Portugal.

The tombstone of Vasco Da Gama.