St.Mary’s Church, Kandanad, Ernakulam

The St.Mary’s Church of Kandanad is believed to be about 600 years old. Since its inception, the church was renovated, remodeled and rebuilt on several occasions and the edifice in its present magnificent form appears to have been completed in AD 1910.

Various stages of its construction are recorded at relevant portions in the mammoth structure.

The village Kandanad lay along the border of erstwhile Travancore and Cochin. Though it belonged to Travancore, its culture is markedly Kochiite. This may be due to the village’s close proximity to Kochin royalty (Thripunithara, the former seat of Kochin kings) as also its immediate urban contact comes from the main city of Cochin state namely, Ernakulam, hardly fifteen kilometers north. The people are mostly Christian farmers, small and big.

St.Mary’s Church has over the years attained the pride of place as the cathedral church of Kandanad diocese. It is recorded in the visitor’s dairy that Claudius Buchanan, a member of the Anglican Church who was keen to have a viable tie-up with the Syrian Church in Malabar had visited the church in 1806.

Web : http://www.syrianchurch.org/ch/KandanadChurch.htm