Mattancherry Palace, Kochi

Mattancherry Palace is popularly known as Dutch Palace built by Portuguese located at Kochi. The Palace is rich with significant exotic paintings and murals denoting traditional art and architecture of Hindus. A vast collection of mural paintings and portraits of the Maharajas of Cochin lure the visitors from different nook and corner of the world. Thus the Hindu temple painting is delightfully portrayed in the form of murals in the Mattancherry palace. This architecture is entirely influenced by Portuguese style and splendor.

Mattancherry Palace is located just 10 kms from Ernakulam having prime attractions as Murals and portraits of Hindu art and craft. This murals are painted in rich warm colors in tempera method. Mattancherry Palace is festooned with low wooden ceiling and 300 sq feet of wall face wrapped with about 48 paintings. The mural paintings in this part are dates back to the 16th century. The scenes form Ramayana, the sacrifice of Dasaratha, the life of sita, story from Krishna Lila are all illastrated in these mural painting. The mural paintings are mainly attributed to the artistic state of mind of Veera Kerala Verma.

The palace walls looks beautiful from inside and there remain two temples within the palace, one is dedicated to Lord Krishna and another one to Lord Shiva. The paintings also tell the stories from the epics as Mahabharata and the sacred Purana, spreaded over a total area of almost 1000 sq. ft within the Dutch Palace. The palace has beautiful strips that looks like elegant black granite but actually made of a combination of charcoal, burnt coconut shells, lime, plant juices and egg whites. These mural paintings contributes a lot in making Ernakulam a worth visiting place. Ernakulam is well connected by roads to all the nearby spots and places of Cochin.