The city has a rich historical legacy with the Arabs, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese and finally the British who had each set up trading posts here at various times using the town as a hub of trade & industry. Each of them has left something behind in culture, architecture, language and religion.
From 1498 to 1663, Fort Kochi was ruled by Portugal and Cochin saw a great amount of commercial activity during these years. The spice trade was brought to Kochi by the Portuguese explorer and trader Vasco de Gama, the first European to set sail for India. This followed immense wealth for a few families in Kochi who capitalized on the potential by planting acres of different spices.
The city as it is today came into being in 1967 when the merger of some of the neighbouring towns and villages like Mattancherry, Fort Cochin, Palluruthy, Thoppumpady and Willingdon Island all merged into the Greater Cochin area. Today the city continues to grow with Edapally, Trikkakara, Kakanad and Tripunithara becoming part of Kochi. Ernakulam is the land based part of Kochi, with the remainder being islands off its coastline, this is the commercial and main residential part of the city.
The cities rich historical legacy is still well preserved in
Fort Cochin which retains some of the ambience of its colonial past with its Chinese fishing nets, stately bungalows amid beautiful gardens and ancient trees, the Dutch palace and the
St. Francis church where Vasco Da Gama was originally buried though later his remains were moved to a church in Lisbon.