Kollam
| Kollam കൊല്ലം |
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| State : |
 India
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| State : | Kerala | ||
| District : | Kollam | ||
| Location : | 8 ° 53 ' N , 76 ° 35' E | ||
| Height : | 16 m | ||
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Inhabitants : - Agglomeration : |
349,033 (2011) 1,110,005 (2011) |
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| Website : | http://www.kollamcorporation.gov.in/ | ||
Kollam ( Malayalam കൊല്ലം Kollam [ ˈkolːʌm ]), formerly Quilon , is a port city in the southern Indian state of Kerala with around 350,000 inhabitants (2011 census).
It is located 60 kilometers northwest of Thiruvananthapuram between the Arabian Sea and Lake Ashtamudi , which is connected to the branched waterway system of the backwaters . Kollam is the administrative seat of the Kollam district , an early Christian center and seat of a Catholic bishop ( Quilon diocese ).
history
Even before the founding of today's city, there was a port settlement called Desinganadu in its place. a. to Phenicia and the Roman Empire .
According to the constant local tradition, the Apostle Thomas landed in present-day Kerala in 52 and founded seven Christian communities along the Malabar coast , of which Kollam is named as the southernmost. At the time of St. Thomas there was the aforementioned trading and port settlement, which also owned a Jewish community. The apostle was the first to proselytize among these compatriots. It is narrated that when he left he consecrated two bishops who continued to care for the Christians.
The importance of the square increased more and more in the early Middle Ages due to the spice trade, especially with China . Finally, the city was formally founded in 825 by the Chera king Rajasekhara Varman (820-844), with which the Malayalam calendar (Kolla Varsham) begins. At that time, Kollam was the capital of the province of Venad, which developed into an independent state in the 12th century. The Europeans called the city Quilon. At that time the Christians received numerous privileges from the king, which were recorded on engraved copper plates for durability. Some of these records, which are over 1000 years old, have been preserved to this day and are among the treasures of Indian history.
The Italian monk John of Montecorvino landed in Quilon in 1291 and looked after the Christians found there before he crossed India to the east and finally proselytized in China.
Marco Polo visited the city in 1292; About a century later, the Arab explorer Ibn Battuta also docked there.
In 1320, the French Dominican father Jordanus Catalanus de Severac moved to Asia on papal mandate, where he settled in Kollam to do missionary work and to serve the local Christians as pastor. From 1323 baptisms that he performed there are documented. In 1328 he traveled to Avignon , reported Pope John XXII. about Kollam and the local Christian community, whereupon he issued the bull "Romanus Pontifex" on August 9, 1329 and officially brought the diocese of Quilon into being as the first of all Catholic Indian dioceses. On August 21 of the same year followed the bull “Venerabili Fratri Jordano” with which the pontiff appointed Father Jordanus as the first pastor. As a suffragan diocese, Quilon was subordinate to the Latin Archdiocese of Sultaniya in Persia, in today's Soltaniyeh . Bishop Jordanus also wrote a detailed description of India and the conditions it encountered, which we have received under the title “Mirabilia Descripta”. According to local Indian tradition, Bishop Jordanus was stoned by Muslims near Bombay in 1336 . When the Pontifical Legate Giovanni de Marignolli came to Quilon in 1348, he did not meet Bishop Jordanus, but remained in the city as a pastor for 16 months.
In 1502 the Portuguese founded a trading post in Kollam and in 1518 built the “Fort” Forte de São Tomé , of which an impressive ruin still exists today and which is one of the city's landmarks. Not far from there, the Portuguese governor built his residence, which is now the domicile of the Bishop of Quilon. During this time, St. Franz Xaver (1506–1552) also worked in the port city for a long time. In 1557 the old diocese of Quilon was dissolved and the city and the surrounding area were added to the diocese of Cochin . In 1661 Kollam became Dutch and the Catholics were suppressed by the new colonial government. Catholic community life could only be continued in secret. It was not until the King of Travancore defeated and expelled the Dutch in 1741 that Catholic life there flourished again. From 1795 Kollam came under colonial influence again when the British stationed a garrison in the city to monitor compliance with a treaty with Travancore.
In 1838 Pope Gregory XVI established the Apostolic Vicariate of Malabar , based in Verapoly , to which from then on Kollam also belonged. That vicariate was divided into three parts on May 12, 1845, of which Quilon was the southernmost and belonged to the Belgian Carmelites , who worked there with great zeal. On September 1, 1886, the Diocese of Quilon was re-established by Pope Leo XIII. Between 1905 and 1931 the Swiss Carmelite Father Alois Benziger officiated here as local bishop , who, through his interest in oriental liturgies , came to a church union with the so-called Jacobites , a group of St. Thomas Christians there. It was performed on September 20, 1930 in the bishop's chapel of Quilon and an independent rite was formed from it within the Catholic Church, namely the Syro-Malankar rite . A memorial stone in the bishop's chapel in Kollam reminds of this.
Until 1956 the city belonged to the Indian princely state of Travancore , since then it has belonged to the then newly founded state of Kerala . The official name is now Kollam again, but the diocese still bears the better-known name Quilon.
Tourism and sightseeing
With foreign holidaymakers, Kollam is especially popular as the southernmost starting point for boat trips on the backwaters . The city itself has retained a rural, typically Keralite character. In the winding streets of the old town, old wooden houses with red tile roofs are lined up close together. In between there are temples, mosques and churches, the shrine of Our Lady of Velankanni is particularly noteworthy . The city's landmark is the clock tower built in 1944.
The ruins of a Portuguese-Dutch fortress, several churches from the 18th century and Kerala's highest lighthouse (44 m) from 1902 can be seen in the port district of Tangasseri (formerly Tangy). Close by is a beautiful, but overgrown European cemetery, with splendid old grave monuments from Portuguese, Dutch and especially English times.
economy
Kollam is an important location for the chemical and aluminum industry. Cashew nuts , the main crop in the area, are processed in the city and exported via the port. The manufacture of pottery is also important.
To the north is the Neendakara fishing port, which can accommodate up to 500 fishing boats.
Climate table
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Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Kollam
Source: www.myweather2.com
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Alternative names
The authors of different nations have repeatedly rewritten the name of the city. The Portuguese made Quilon (spoken: Coy-lon ) out of the Arabic Kaulam . And the Dutch Coylan with variants like: Coilan, Coijlan, Coylang, Coijlang, Coulan. Medieval sources (Jordanus) also contain the name Columbum and Kolamba .
Views from Kollam
Clock tower
Street in the old town
Street scene
Kollam, entrance to the Thangasseri waterfront
Old St. Peter's Church, 18th century
Bishop's house and chapel (17th century), former residence of the Portuguese governor
Bishop's Chapel, interior view
Velankanni shrine, interior view
400-year-old Infant Jesus Cathedral; Demolished in 2006 and replaced by a new building
New Infant Jesus Cathedral
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Census of India 2011: Provisional Population Totals. Cities having population 1 lakh and above. (PDF; 151 kB)
- ^ Census of India 2011: Provisional Population Totals. Urban Agglomerations / Cities having population 1 lakh and above. (PDF; 138 kB)
- ↑ On the history of the Thomas Christians, with the mention of Kollam as one of the seven early Christian communities
- ↑ The seven primitive communities of St. Thomas on the Malabar coast
- ↑ Page of the Indian Bishops' Conference on the History of the Diocese of Quilon ( Memento of the original from July 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ On the 7 parishes of St. Thomas and the copper tablets of Quilon, with their illustrations
- ^ The Quilon copper plates with pictures
- ↑ Photo of the Kollam lighthouse on Flickr .com
- ↑ http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.1:1:922.hobson.2163758
- ↑ http://www.nationaalarchief.nl/AMH/detail.aspx?page=dpost&lang=en&id=94 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
