Cemetery at Pulicat The
Portuguese established a trading post in Pulicat in 1502 with the help of the
Vijayanagar rulers. They built a fort there and held this fort until 1609 when they were defeated by the Dutch. The
Dutch occupied Pulicat fort in 1609. Between 1621 and 1665, 131 slave ships were deployed by the Dutch to export 38,441 Indians captured on the Coromandel coast and transported from Pulicat to be sold as slaves to Dutch plantations in
Batavia. Pulicat was till 1690 the capital of
Dutch Coromandel. It repeatedly changed possession, until finally occupied by the
British in 1825. It became part of the
Madras Presidency, which later became Madras state in independent India and renamed Tamil Nadu in 1968. The Dutch church has been built over several times and is rather dilapidated today, and the Dutch fort has fallen into ruin. The old lighthouse still stands at the opposite bank of the lake. The
cemetery dating to 1622 has been taken under the wing of the
Archaeological Survey of India and so has survived the passage of time. The grand, Dutch-inscribed tombs and graves, carved with skeletons rather than the cross, have been quite well preserved. The cemetery lies behind the market. Aadhi Narayana Perumal temple is an old temple located at Pazhaverkadu. Pulicat-Day is celebrated on World Wetland Day (2 February) at Pulicat by AARDE Foundation.
Famous traditional catamaran competition and several competitions are held on this day. Small information center (Pulicat Museum) at Pazhaverkadu gives detailed information on Pulicat ecology and built heritage. ==Fort Geldria==