358# At last I made it to the Dutch cemetery at Fortkochi. Unfortunately the gates were locked. May be because it was the Christmas day, evening

Around 1653

Dutch came to Cochin, at the invitation of a deposed prince of Cochin Royal Family and the hereditary Prime Minister of Cochin, namely the Paliath Achan, with the active and open support of the local Syrian Christians and the Dutch conquered Kochi in 1653. The town was now the capital of Dutch Malabar and belonged to the worldwide trading network of the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch also destroyed many Catholic institution in Cochin.