Kottappuram (Cranganore Fort)

The Kottappuram Fort is in the village of Methala in Kodungallur, at the mouth of the Periyar River.

Now in ruins, with only a few vestiges behind, the remains nevertheless speak of the battles that have taken place for control over the land, the river and the seas.

The fort was built, in the early 16th century, by the Portuguese, who had become a force to be reckoned with, in Kerala, after 1498 when Vasco da Gama made his landing on the Malabar Coast at Kappad, near Kozhikode(Calicut), ruled then by the Samuthiri (Zamorin).

The fort passed from the Portuguese into Dutch hands in 1663 after the Dutch wrested Kodungallur (Cranganore) and the southern port of Kollam (Quilon) from the Portuguese in 1661.

The Dutch later sold the fort to the southern princely state of Travancore in 1789, as Travancore took steps to protect itself from the invasion of Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore. The fort was attacked and captured by Tipu during his invasion of Kerala in 1789/1790. After the defeat of Tipu by the British in 1799, Travancore - an ally of the British, regained control of the fort, which however, by then, had been reduced to a few walls.

The insignia of the Travancore State is seen in the inscription above at the current Kottappuram site.

Excavations are underway at the site to recover and display the remains of the fort, buried underneath the ground.