Description of the attraction
The Church of St. Francis, located in the city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala, is a historical monument from the colonial period in India. Its story began after Vasco da Gama landed on the Indian coast in 1498. The Portuguese soon built a fortified fort in Kochi (at that time Cochin), on the territory of which a wooden church was also erected in honor of St. Bartholomew. But after a short time, by order of the Viceroy of Portugal, all wooden buildings were replaced with stone and brick ones. On the site of the old church, a new brick was built by the Franciscan monks. It was completed in 1516 and was named after St. Anthony. But in 1663, power in the city of Kochi passed into the hands of the Dutch. And since they were Protestants, unlike the Portuguese Catholics, all the churches in the city were destroyed. Only this one survived - the Church of St. Anthony, but it was "converted" into a Protestant one. When Kochi was conquered by the British in 1795, the church was renamed again and became the Church of St. Francis, retaining this name to this day. In 1923, it was included in the list of historical monuments protected by the Society for Archaeological Research of India.
The main attraction of this church is that it was in it that Vasco da Gama was buried, who died in Kochi in 1524, during his third visit to India. But fourteen years later, his remains were transported to Lisbon.
