Fort Kochi and Mattancherry

Kochi grew as a port on the Malabar spice trade, attracting Arab, Chinese, Jewish and later European merchants. The Portuguese arrived at the start of the sixteenth century and, with the permission of the Raja of Cochin, built Fort Emmanuel near the waterfront, which gave Fort Kochi its name. St Francis Church, built by the Portuguese and described by Kerala Tourism as India's oldest European church, is where the explorer Vasco da Gama was first buried before his remains were returned to Portugal.

The Dutch took Kochi in the 1660s and held it for over a century until the British took control in the 1790s. Mattancherry Palace, given to the Raja of Cochin by the Portuguese around 1545 and later known as the Dutch Palace, contains temple-style murals of Hindu epics. Nearby, the Paradesi Synagogue, built in the sixteenth century by Sephardic Jews and sharing a wall with the palace temple, is the only one of the area's historic synagogues still in use. The Chinese fishing nets, locally called cheena vala, are believed to have been introduced by Chinese traders in the fourteenth century.

Fort Kochi and Mattancherry remain lived-in neighbourhoods where Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Konkani communities live side by side, and the area's mosques, churches and temples reflect that mix. Small fishing families still work the nets, spice traders operate from old godowns, and the evening seafront promenade fills with local families. The Jewish community that once gave Jew Town its name is now very small, but the synagogue and street names preserve its memory.