EnglishChurches (Palayakail e Punayakail)
Thoothukudi [Tuticurim], Tamil Nadu, India
Religious Architecture
A network of churches of the Parava community, converted to Christianity by their chief João da Cruz, was built on the Fishery Coast throughout the 16th century. As a result of Francisco Xavier’s visit to this region, the Jesuits assumed the administration of this vast community, setting up their headquarters at Thoothukudi, where the priests built a seminary. Following the expulsion of the Jesuits, most of the churches were renovated in neo-Gothic style during the 19th century and, more recently, with reinforced concrete structures, the Portuguese influence remaining in only some sporadic cases. To the south, in the villages of Palayakail and Punayakail, are two churches of identical features, with an exterior appearance marked by wide triangular buttresses that support the stone vaulting covering not only the nave but the chancel as well. This solution, which is not found on the Malabar Coast and only appears in cases of erudite influences in Goa, seems to have been common on the whole of the Coromandel Coast, as there are other churches in the region of Mylapore in the same style.