St. Francis Church

St. Francis Church Review

The Portuguese flag first appeared in Fort Cochin in 1500, and Vasco da Gama arrived in 1502. The following year, Afonso de Albuquerque came with half a dozen ships full of settlers—he built the fort, and five friars in the crowd built India's first European church, St. Francis, in 1510. Da Gama returned in 1524 as Portuguese viceroy of the Indies, died that same year, and was buried in this church. You can still visit his gravestone, but his remains were shipped back to Lisbon in 1538.

The church's history reflects the European struggle for colonial turf in India. It was a Catholic church until 1664, when it became a Dutch Reform church; it later became Anglican (1804-1947) and is now part of the Church of South India. Inside are beautifully engraved Dutch and Portuguese tombstones and the doep boek, a register of baptisms and marriages between 1751 and 1894 where you can view in photographic reproduction (the original is too fragile).