Travel Day 923 – Fort Cochin and Mattancherry, Kerala, INDIA
While I tried to see the rest of the Biennale today, in the end I saw more historic spice warehouses in Mattancherry than anything else…
Crumbling Spice Warehouse in Mattancherry
The remaining Biennale sites on my map were pretty spread out and mostly in the Mattancherry warehouse area, but as it turned out there was not too much to see. Some of the sites just had some bricks arranged or random holes dug into the ground, which was not really as exciting to me, but at least it got me out into the warehouse area and once I was there, I continued walking around…
I was actually fascinated by all the historic warehouse structures with their heavy wooden doors, red porous bricks and heavy tile roofs. At first I thought that all the warehouses must have been built by the Portuguese, but later on I learned that the Dutch were known to have built extensive warehouse complexes in the area. But independent from who built them, the warehouses in Mattancherry were extremely beautiful to me and I walked into every single one of them that was not locked down and closed…
Still active Spice Warehouse in Mattancherry
The funny thing was that most of these old spice warehouses were still in operation and while nobody really expected visitors, I was luckily able to walk around freely, say hello to workers and watch them mind their business. Some were just refurbishing old machinery or oil barrels while others actually still worked in the spice business and were washing and drying big chunks of ginger, while others were grinding down and packing black pepper…
Besides the sometimes really amazing smell of spices and aroma in the air, I mostly enjoyed seeing all the warehouse structures. The only thing I personally did not understand was the neglect and lack of maintenance. While these great spice warehouses could be seen in all sorts of decay, some were nothing more than broken down to gravel and overgrown, but somehow still in use…
- Overgrown Spice Warehouse in Mattancherry
This attitude towards the historic buildings was already something I didn’t quite understand in Kolkata and here once more I had to wonder why people only kept structures alive that were tourist attractions like in Pondicherry, or the historic part of Fort Cochin. But whatever the reason, I was happy that I was here today, because there would probably be less to see every single year as nature was slowly claiming back its property…
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