Dutch Cemetery, Kochi is a historic Christian cemetery at Fort Kochi, in Kochi, in the Indian state of Kerala. Established in 1724, the cemetery preserves the graves and funerary monuments of members of the Dutch community at Cochin and of later European residents.
History In 1663, the Dutch captured Cochin from the Portuguese and developed the town as an administrative centre of Dutch Malabar and a trading settlement of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) on the Malabar Coast.
The cemetery was founded in 1724. It served as a burial ground for Dutch colonial officials, military officers, merchants and their families living at Cochin. Some sources describe it as the oldest surviving Dutch cemetery in India.
Following the British occupation of Cochin in 1795, the cemetery continued to be used for European burials. It is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
The cemetery contains 104 tombs and epitaphs. Many of the monuments were constructed using granite and locally available laterite, and several retain inscriptions associated with the Dutch and later British communities of Fort Kochi.
Selected burials Among the surviving Dutch monuments are those of Johan Daimichen (1728–1784), whose grave is the oldest dated Dutch monument in the cemetery; Aletta Augustina Thiel (1760–1784), wife of Jan Lambertus van Spall, the last Dutch commander of Cochin; Jacob Bernard Weinsheimer (1745–1790); and Johannes van Blankenberg (1749–1794), a VOC sea captain and overseer of the naval equipage at Cochin.
Other identifiable Dutch burials include Johan Adam Cellarius (1740–1796), Adriaan Poolvliet (died 1799), who served as a VOC junior merchant and chief at Quilon and Cannanore, Dorothea Lambertina Zeijsig (1774–1800), Cornelia Elisabeth Vogt (1784–1804), Daniel van der Sloot (1737–1807), Johannes Wolff (1748–1815) and Catharina Sara Smit (1760–1820).
Later British burials include Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Frith (died 1824) and Captain Joseph Ethelbert Winckler, whose burial in 1913 is recorded as the last at the cemetery.
Access The cemetery stands on Dutch Cemetery Road near the seafront, a short walk from St Francis Church. It is managed by the Church of South India and is normally kept closed. Visitors may request access through the authorities of St Francis CSI Church, which also maintains the cemetery's burial records.
Gallery
See also Dutch Cemetery – other cemeteries associated with Dutch settlements Dutch Cemetery, Chinsurah Dutch Cemetery, Surat Dutch Malabar Dutch India St. Francis Church, Kochi Vasco House, Kochi Thakur House, Kochi
References
External links
Dutch Cemetery, Fort Kochi – Kerala Tourism