ETERNAL WALLS OF ST. THOMAS FORT

St. Thomas fort which is situated at a site of Thagasseri was established by Portuguese
for safeguarding their reign and to protect their growing trade. Thangasseri which is renowned as beach town is silently nestled within an estuary of an Arabian sea in Kollam city and it is located around 5 km away from the city centre making it one of the most efficient town settlements and within its blanks the beauty of St. Thomas fort reveals the history of glorious Portuguese era.

Talking about the history of the fort one must understand that Thangasseri was once associated in trade relation with Chinese people who was later followed by Portuguese, Dutch and the Britishers who with their affluent brain turn the village into gold hamlet. Seeing the growing competition captain Rodriguez was commissioned and was ordered by the queen to build the fort and today the walls of the fort are engraved within the golden chapter of Thangasseri and to protect the side Archaeological department is doing their best to preserve it.

With the prospect Portuguese established the trading port and after gaining the source of sovereignty they went on to build the amazing fort of St. Thomas in 1518 to protect their hegemony. In later halves the fort and the town were descended by the Dutch infact it was handed over to them and Dutch in their turn manipulated the site and counsel Dutch Malabar.

Dutch during their reign possessed and occupied the fort for numbers of years who ruled the site efficiently but then again in 1795 British East India Company came in and took the charge and attorney from the hand of Dutch and in 1823 with an overall control Fort St. Thomas fort was forced to accept the lease by Travancore from British Government for a period of twenty years.

When it comes to structure of St. Thomas fort is about 20 feet tall and its reflects the beauty of Portuguese architecture but unfortunately today we can only witness the ruins of the fort which is well renowned as Tangasseri fort. Facing an estuary of beach the site is chronological as it looks to carve the history and its decedents who lived and enjoy their merry time within the course of as Tangasseri fort.

Owing to its importance the site is now property of Government of India and the fort has been announced as significant landmark. After an intervention of the government the site has been put into the verge of reformation and at present the fort is administered and managed by the Archaeological Survey of India.

So come here and reveal the dimension of history as the place still ushers and spreads an essence of their decedents who in turn change the history and re wrote it again to make it more counting and the rare example of their territorial interest is this fort which was once a glory of Portuguese who in later half passed the badges around other invaders.