01The prisoner who built forts
On 10 August 1741 Marthanda Varma beat the Dutch East India Company’s force at Kolachel, a few kilometres down the coast. Among the prisoners was Eustachius De Lannoy, a Flemish officer. He entered the king’s service, trained the Travancore army in European drill, and rose to be its commander, the Valia Kappithan. Under him the fort at Udayagiri, on the road between Padmanabhapuram and Thiruvananthapuram, was rebuilt with stone walls around a hill of about 90 acres. It held the army’s arsenal and a foundry where cannon were cast. This was the army that carried Marthanda Varma’s kingdom north to the borders of Kochi.
02De Lannoy’s grave
De Lannoy served Travancore for some thirty-six years, under Marthanda Varma and then Dharma Raja, and died in 1777. He was buried inside the fort, in a small chapel, and his tombstone with its inscription still lies there among the trees, beside the graves of his wife and son. The fort walls survive in long stretches, and the enclosure is kept by the Tamil Nadu forest department as a biodiversity park. A painting in the Padmanabhapuram palace nearby shows the Dutch surrender at Kolachel.
The life of this place
- 10 August 1741Marthanda Varma beat the Dutch at Kolachel; De Lannoy was taken prisoner.
- mid-18th centuryThe fort was rebuilt in stone under De Lannoy, with an arsenal and foundry.
- 1777 CEDe Lannoy died and was buried inside the fort.
On the Thiruvananthapuram–Nagercoil road near Thuckalay, about 3 km from Padmanabhapuram palace.
