Dutch Cemetery

Consecrated in 1724 and considered the oldest European cemetery in India: 104 granite and laterite tombs of Dutch officials, officers and traders, standing behind a wall a couple of minutes from Fort Kochi beach. The whole colonial story of the city is compressed into weathered epitaphs, most of them belonging to people who did not last long here. The cemetery is kept closed most of the time, so the tombstones are usually read through the bars, but it is opened on request. The Church of South India manages it, and its St. Francis Church nearby keeps the burial records. It is at its best in the last hour of light.

A hundred and four Dutch epitaphs, read through the bars at golden hour