Kerala - Kochi   

Dutch Cemetery opened after renovation

Staff Reporter

A NEW LOOK: First Secretary of the Netherlands Government J.H. Schiitte visiting the renovated Dutch Cemetery at Fort Kochi on Tuesday. Photo: Vipinchandran

KOCHI : The Dutch Cemetery in Fort Kochi, the oldest European cemetery in India, was opened on Tuesday after renovation work.

The 284-year-old cemetery is considered to be an authentic record of hundreds of Europeans, both the Dutch and the English, who arrived in India to expand their colonial empire.

Consecrated in 1724, the cemetery has 104 tombs. The renovation work was carried out with the help of the Dutch Embassy in India.

First Secretary of the Netherlands Government J.H. Schiitte reopened the cemetery.

His deputy Mohammed Afsal and Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey of India (Kerala Circle) Nambirajan too were present.

Under the renovation work, tombs that were in bad shape were strengthened and flowering plants planted around them.

With passage of time, the layer of plaster over the laterite stones in many of the tombs withered away. The whole compound was landscaped and the compound wall strengthened. The renovation work was done by P P Joseph and landscaping by Subramanian.

The cemetery is being looked after by St. Francis CSI Church, Fort Kochi. A public function was held at the church, prior to the reopening. Church Vicar P J Jacob said that the church promised help in tracing other Dutch monuments in Kerala.

The unique feature of the tombs was that none of them carry a cross, unlike in modern tombs. Both the big and small tombs resemble the Dutch architecture of the period. The inscriptions on them were in the old Dutch script.

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