Commissioned on the 18^th of August 99 Fort Kochi is a great tribute to the city of Cochin. Designed and built in the style and principle of the early Dutch and Portuguese architecture of Fort Cochin blends very well into the Cochin sky line. Its hard to believe that the Brunton is a new building since it resembles the old colonial buildings of Cochin. The simple lime washed walls, sloping tile roof and terra-cotta floors with the Giant “Rain Tree” completing the picture.

Cochin was born in a storm, nurtured in rivalry, and established as the Crossroads of the Battling Empires of Europe: Portuguese, Dutch and British.

In the 1340’s torrential rains filled the Periyar River which broke through to Arabian Sea and formed Cochin’s protected harbour. Trading ships soon sailed in: and out. The much-photographed Chinese fishing nets at the harbour-mouth, best seen at sunset, testify to Cochin’s pre-European association with China.

An in an intriguing side note to history, the Americans were discovered by Christopher Columbus and Pero Alvarez Cabral, and named after Amerigo Vespucci: all three were searching for trading ties with Cochin. Success, however, came to another European navigator.

In 1502, Portuguese Seafarer Vasco da Gama came to Cochin seeking spices and converts. He found his spices, launched Europe’s great Age of Exploration: and prayed in the first European church in Asia. His Roman Catholic faith, however, conflicted with the existing Syrian Christian religion brought…along with the Flowering Cross…reputedly by Apostles Thomas Didymus in AD 52. Cochin’s ancient Christians swore on their revered, slanting. Coonen Corss, that they would never accept aggressive Portuguese suzerainty. Vasco da Gama died in Cochin on Christmas Day 1524 and was buried in this church.

Though his remains were later removed to Portugal, his grave is marked with a plaque and a brass rail. Portuguese headstones and those of their successors are embedded in the walls of St. Francis Church:: reputedly named after gentle Italian, St. Francis of Assisi, but associated with the Spanish missionary, St. Francis Xavier, who is said to have worshipped here. Unlike the Portuguese, Cochin’s kings were very tolerant of other faiths. European Jews, fleeing persecution at home, settled in Jew Town near the Mattancherry Palace of the Hindu king an dprospered. Many Jewish families have now migrated but their beautiful four-century-old Synagogue still has the Scrolls of the Law. Gold crowns gifted by dignitaries down the ages, chandeliers and a brass-railed pulpit. Jewish brides, here still wear their richly embellished traditional costumes. Unique Willow Pattern tiles in this place of worship speak the Cochin Jew’s once thriving trade links with China. Overlooking the Jewish Synagogue, protectively, is the Mattancherry Palace of the formar rajas of Cochin. Today it holds royal planquins, weapons, robes and beautiful murals of ancient Hindu epics painted in vegetable dyes. But, when the Portuguese were ousted by the Dutch on January 7, 1663, the people of Cochin renamed the Mattancherry Palace. The Dutch Palace to honour the Netherlanders.

Also, above the gateway to Stuber Hall, the crest of the Dutch East India Company has been proudly preserved. To this day, some families in Cochin bear Dutch names and claim descent from the old merchant princes of Holland. The Dutch surrendered to the British on December 19, 1795. Though the old Portuguese fort has been reduced to just a Bastion House, the fort Cochin area became, a center of Britian’s trading interests. Today, the Cochin Club, a mock half-timbered mansion, and the Old Harbour House….once a Portuguese hospice but converted to an inn by the British….date from this period.

Also from the days of the British Raj are the trading houses, still dealing with spices, coir, rubber and tea. Though they are Indian-owned, their names reflect their British Empire origins. Carrit Moran: Peirce Lesile; J Thomas: Forbes, Ewart and Giggis; Matheson Bosan quet….to name a few. Many of their senior executives still live in the old Raj houses in Fort Cochin. On the 15^th August 1947, however, the Lion Capital of ancient Indian Emperor Ashoka replaced the British Crown. Indians once again began to control their own destiny, 445 years after Vasco da Gama first established Cochin as the Crossroads of the Batting Empires of Europe.