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Kochi, St. Francis church Original grave of Vasco da Gama.en.wikipedia.org
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St. Francis Church, Kochi Gama was buried here. detination2india.com
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St.
Francis Church (owned by the Church of South India) in the old part of Kochi - Ft. Kochi Fort
Kochi
(aka. Fort Cochin), originally built in 1503, is the oldest European
church in India. and has great historical significance.
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| St. Francis church History. credit: thinkingpaticle.com |
The explorer from Portugal Vasco de Gama who first discovered the alternate first sea route to India from the Europe was buried here. First built in 1503 in the fort area close to the sea. the church was under the control of the Dutch - 1664 to 1804 and the English (East India company) from 1804 to 1947 after the Portuguese in1663. under the British, After 1947 it came under the authority and control of the Church of South India However, being a protected monuments, certain powers are vested with the ASI - Archaeological Survey of India (Govt. of India)
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St. Francis Church, Kochi credit:flicker.com
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This
old church was a silent witness to several important events involving
cutthroat competitions and struggles in mercantile trade among the European countries to
control over the Indian subcontinent
and to establish their hegemony during the colonial period. The Portuguese
explorer,
Vasco
da Gama, landedon May, 1498 and who first landed near Calicut (now Kozhicode) on the Malabar
coast of western India and died in Kochi in 1524 when he was on
his third
visit
to India. His body was originally buried in this church, but after 14 years his mortal remains were taken to Lisbon for burial for unknown reasons. was but after
fourteen years, for unknown reasons. The assumption is if other colonial power took control of the church, they might disturb his grave or would pay less attention to his burial site. In the capital city of Lisbon Gama was given reverential burial.
Pedro Álvares Cabral and Alfonso de Albuquerque, who later visited Kochi after De Gama, built a fort here with permission from the Raja of Cochin. Within the fort prescient, they built a church with a wooden structure, which was dedicated to St. Bartholomew. The neighborhood is now known as Fort Kochi. It was in 1506, the Raja of Cochin allowed Francisco de Almeida, the Portuguese viceroy, to rebuild wooden buildings in stone and masonry with a tiled roof.
and in 1516, the new church was dedicated to St. Anthony. When the Dutch in 1663 captured this area, being protestants, they demolished all the Portuguese churches except this one. When the British took the reign in 1794, they, however allowed the Dutch to retain it. In 1804 it changed hands to Anglican Communion. Under the Ecclesiastical Department of the Government of India the Anglican Communion changed the name of the patron saint to St. Francis.
The gravestones of other Portuguese and
the Dutch are on the southern wall. A cenotaph
in memory of the residents of Kochi who died in the World
War I
was erected in 1920.
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