ST. FRANCIS CHURCH - This is India's oldest European church. I somehow mistook it for St. Thomas' Church. I took some photos to bring it back to my friend Mary in Cleveland. This Church is located in Fort Cochin and was built in 1503 by Portuguese Franciscan Friars. Rao and I sat inside this Church for a few minutes and enjoyed the peace!! There were several others sitting and praying.
Sri Chottanikkara temple - Bhagavathi is the main deity here. This one is located near Ernakulam and is a popular deity in Kerala.
In Tripunittura the goddess is worshipped along with Lord Vishnu. Goddess Rajarajeswari is the presiding deity here. This to us is of special interest.The interesting thing here is that this deity is worshipped as Saraswati in the morning draped in white, as Bhadrakali at noon draped in crimson, and as Durga in the evening in blue. The image in the shrine is not fixed to the ground but is sitting on loose sand.
Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple - Located in Thiruvananthapuram (Travancore) and was built in the 1700s. It has a seven-storeyed carved gopuram. There are many pillars, carvings and paintings of natural pigments. The temple is dedicated to Vishnu who reclines on the sacred serpent Ananda. The image of Vishnu is about 18 feet long and the image of Brahma is seen in the lotus that grows from Brahma's navel. Now I know how the name Ananthapadmanabha came about!!
Many of us have heard of Kathakali, the famous dance of Kerala which I love!!. But Krishnanattam, Koodiyattom, Pavakkoothu, Nokkuvidya, Velakali and others have thrived under the patronage of Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple.
Vadukkumnathan Temple - This is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is one of the largest temples in Kerala and Adi Sankaracharya is supposed to have spent his last days in this temple.
Thrichur (Thrissur):
The Kerala Sahitya Academy and Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy are located in Trichur.
Others
MATTANCHERRY PALACE - The palace was originally built by the Portuguese in the 1500s and the Dutch renovated it after 1660 and preseted it to Veera Kerala Varma, the then raja of Kochin. The palace is also known as Dutch Palace.
PARISHATH THAMPURAN MUSEUM - It was originally a Durbar hall. This museum contains collections of 19th century oil paintings, old coins, sculptures and Mughal paintings and other exhibits from the Royal family.
We did spend quite sometime walking around inside these two buildings. You could pay a fee and take photos inside. But, the irony of fate - Nirmala happily paid the fee and then informed me about it and I, since no photographing was allowed in other temples, left the camera with our driver in the car.
I just wanted to finish this post. hence not much personal details are given.
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