English
Saint Mary’s Church (Valiyappaly)
Kottayam, Kerala, India
Religious Architecture
Belonging to an old community of Knanaya Christians, Saint Mary’s Church at Valiappally is undoubtedly the oldest church of Portuguese influence built in the interior of Kerala. The date of its inauguration, 1550, is recorded in the old hymns that celebrate its foundation after the Knanaya community had migrated from the region of Kodungallor and settled here in the kingdom of Vadakkumkur. The preservation of this church in its original form has to do with the sacred character of two granite crosses with inscriptions in Pahlavi from the Sassanid era, which the Knanaya community brought from Kodungallor. Going back to the 8th century, these two old crosses are today on the retables of the lateral altars in Saint Mary’s at Valiapally. On the small side, the church has a very simple façade, in the tradition of the first late-Manueline churches erected by the Portuguese in their early period of settlement in the Orient. With aesthetic lines, the façade has a triangular frontispiece with a simple oculus above the portal and a bell tower on the southern side. Although it has been restored, the ceiling structure still has the original tie beams, which have chiselled decoration and rest of wooden corbels sculpted in the forms of lions and elephants. The high altar has also preserved its original form, with a refined slatted, wooden ceiling of Hindu tradition with applications of small cherubs. Mention must be made of the portal, which has granite jambs topped by a round arch of classic inspiration and is adorned with sculptures of elephants and exotic animals. The retable of the high altar, dedicated to Our Lady, is a work of great quality. Its Renaissance composition and its delicate decoration dates it as a Portuguese work of art from the early 17th century. The exterior of the church of Valiapally is of particular interest due to the presence of a gallery that runs along the lateral façade near the bell tower. This half-closed space corresponds to a first phase of the formation of a typology of veranda. Running along the southern façade, the gallery has a sequence of windows that give on to a veranda with a vaulted ceiling and wooden balusters. Built to let air circulate and protect the interior from the sun, the veranda is a transition to the open, colonnaded gallery that became more widespread in the following century. This beautifully proportioned parochial house is a particularly interesting example of this type of building. Of two storeys, where the façade is open with a colonnaded veranda resting on vaulted arches, the building exhibits a rare, picturesque connecting corridor from the tribune to the interior of the church.