Fort Kochi, where the spice trade left its layers

For centuries, the pepper of the Malabar coast was a prized cargo, and Kochi, then Cochin, was one of the places it left from. The town stands on a peninsula at the mouth of a great natural harbour, where the backwaters of Kerala meet the Arabian Sea, and traders from Arabia, China, Persia and the Mediterranean came here long before any European did. Then, at the start of the sixteenth century, came the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and the British, each building their churches, forts and warehouses on top of what was there before.

The result is Fort Kochi and its neighbour Mattancherry: two old districts of quiet streets, colonial houses, spice warehouses, churches, a palace and a synagogue, where every few steps you cross into a different century.

The nets on the shore

The image everyone knows is of the Chinese fishing nets on the waterfront at Fort Kochi: great cantilevered frames of timber, hung with nets and balanced by stone weights on ropes, which a team of fishermen lowers into the water and raises again with a slow, rocking motion. Their origin is uncertain. Tradition links them to Chinese traders, perhaps in the fourteenth or fifteenth century; nobody is quite sure. They are still worked, and in the late afternoon, silhouetted against the sunset over the harbour mouth, they are a lovely sight.

The Portuguese and the Dutch

The Portuguese built a fort here. Little of it survives, but their church does: St Francis Church, founded by Portuguese friars in the early 1500s. The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama died in Kochi in 1524, on his third visit to India, and was buried in this church; in 1539 his remains were taken home to Lisbon.

In Mattancherry, the Portuguese built a palace in 1555 and presented it to the Raja of Cochin. When the Dutch took Kochi in the next century, they renovated it, and it has been known as the Dutch Palace ever since. Its wooden halls hold remarkable murals, scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata painted in rich reds, ochres and greens.

Jew Town

Next to the palace is the quarter called Jew Town, home for centuries to Kochi's Jewish community. At the end of its main street stands the Paradesi Synagogue, built in 1568, destroyed by the Portuguese in 1662 and rebuilt two years later under the Dutch. Its floor is laid with hand-painted blue and white tiles brought from China, and it is described as the oldest active synagogue in the Commonwealth. Almost all of the community has since emigrated, many of them to Israel, and very few remain; the street outside is now lined with antique shops and spice merchants.

The spice trade is still here. Along the waterfront in Mattancherry, old warehouses smell of ginger, pepper and cardamom, and handcarts carry sacks between them.

How to go

Fort Kochi is the natural start of a journey through Kerala, and all three trips here begin in Kochi.

Explore's eight-night A Taste of Southern India - Temples and Tea Plantations goes from Kochi, Mattancherry, Fort Kochi and Ernakulam to the tea hills of Munnar, then Thekkady and the Periyar National Park, with Kumily. It departs in January, March, October, November and December.

G Adventures' six-night Kerala: Beaches & Backwaters, departing from October to December, adds the backwaters, with Kochi, Alleppey, Kollam and Fort Kochi in its list.

Explore's eleven-night Upgraded - South India: Kerala to Goa goes north, from Kochi, Fort Kochi and the Mattancherry Palace to Allepey, Kumarakom and Kottayam, then Calicut, the Western Ghats and Wayanad, the Chundale Lockhart tea plantation, and Coorg and Mercara.

The best months are from October to March, when the weather is warm and mostly dry. The south-west monsoon, from about June to September, brings heavy rain, though the green landscape has its own appeal. Stay in Fort Kochi itself if you can, in one of its old houses. In the evenings, when the day visitors have gone, it is a peaceful place to walk, by the nets, the churches and the old warehouses, as the light goes down over the harbour.