St Mary's Church
St Mary's Church
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
4.0
104 reviews
Excellent
33
Very good
49
Average
19
Poor
3
Terrible
0
Bill H
Leeds, UK789 contributions
Feb 2015 • Friends
This little gem appears to be missed by most visitors to Chennai. If you're visiting the fort and/or the museum then search it out. It's walls are filled with history from the centuries of the British Raj. It's also a quiet corner of the administrative centre of Chennai - a reason why you'll be stopped from taking cameras in to the fort area.
Written March 3, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Sarah Carter
Layer de la Haye, UK915 contributions
Jan 2015 • Couples
If you've come to the Fort for the museum,then you should most definitely head on over to the church. You'll need to walk towards the back of the museum, past the Army Parade ground and then reverse your steps to exit the location.
The oldest Anglican church in India is reasonably well maintained and a delight to visit. (there is no visiting on Sundays) It's open to visitors from 9-5pm, there is a service at 0915.
Here you'll find the register of marriages referencing the founder of Yale in the USA, you'll find memorial plaques to individuals of years gone by and a peaceful oasis. The small garden is quite lovely and well worth a short wander.
The oldest Anglican church in India is reasonably well maintained and a delight to visit. (there is no visiting on Sundays) It's open to visitors from 9-5pm, there is a service at 0915.
Here you'll find the register of marriages referencing the founder of Yale in the USA, you'll find memorial plaques to individuals of years gone by and a peaceful oasis. The small garden is quite lovely and well worth a short wander.
Written February 5, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
janardhanan n
Kochi (Cochin), India276 contributions
Feb 2014 • Couples
St.Mary's church is inside the Fort st. george compound in chennai. This was the first anglican Church to be built east of Suez!! The Fort St. george is being used as the Government secretariate and hence all the security checks to get into the compound to visit the church. Once you enter there you see a beautiful old church with a lot of memorials for all those British soldiers and traders who died in India building the empire.
It is very nicely maintained. Old artefacts are carefully preserved includind the old stone baptism tray.
It is very nicely maintained. Old artefacts are carefully preserved includind the old stone baptism tray.
Written March 7, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Zinzan6
Holmdel, NJ162 contributions
I visited with my 3 children. The fort itself is very busy and it took us a while to locate the church. Once there we spent about an hour exploring.
Outside we checked out the headstones with the 'pirate' headstone getting the most attention.
Inside we explored the various memorials and spent some time sitting inside. It was coming up for sunset and that added to the atmosphere.
Would recommend braving the crowd for some special tranquility.
Outside we checked out the headstones with the 'pirate' headstone getting the most attention.
Inside we explored the various memorials and spent some time sitting inside. It was coming up for sunset and that added to the atmosphere.
Would recommend braving the crowd for some special tranquility.
Written February 19, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
warmemorialjunkie
Chennai (Madras), India35 contributions
Jun 2012 • Friends
Ancient little church ..walls covered with plaques from the 1700's, in memory of British Military officers,
doctors and their wives and children, who've died everywhere from Rangoon to the Cape of good hope,Penang,Sumatra...drowned in the Godavari..killed by tigers..died in war...died during seiges..died at sea ..
An unexpectedly emotional glimpse into the tragic lives of people from another era...take the time to walk around and read all the memorials on the walls and the floor of the church.
doctors and their wives and children, who've died everywhere from Rangoon to the Cape of good hope,Penang,Sumatra...drowned in the Godavari..killed by tigers..died in war...died during seiges..died at sea ..
An unexpectedly emotional glimpse into the tragic lives of people from another era...take the time to walk around and read all the memorials on the walls and the floor of the church.
Written May 5, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Dwightcr
Chapin, SC1,072 contributions
Jan 2020
St. Mary's Church is located within the grounds of Fort St George. The church is the oldest the oldest British building in India. It's plain inside but ozzes history.
Written February 4, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Valavanur Natar... K
Chennai (Madras), India1,432 contributions
Jul 2019 • Solo
St Mary's in Fort St George, Madras - An Oldest Anglican Church
If one is a visitor to Chennai from any part of the world or India, it surely will be worth their while to visit this historical Anglican Church built inside
fort St George, the Seat of Power fir the Government of Tamil Nad, even today.
St Mary's in Fort St George, Madras was consecrated in the year 1680 which makes it one of the oldest Anglican church in Asia ,with very important historic significance in the evolution of Chennai or Madras .
Sadly history tells us that during the 3-year occupation of Fort St George by the French 1746 - 1749 , it was put to use as a water storage .
The church is within Fort St George , a fort built by the British as a secure trading post and completed in 1653 and then gradually kept expanding to its present size and then went on to become and remain the seat of the state government even today ..
The church was built with private contributions, with East India Company, who developed the fort , and on its own had no part in its Construction actually.
Streynsham Master 1640 - 1724, was appointed governor in 1678 after spending number of years with the Company based in Surat on the west coast of India .Soon after taking up the appointment in January 1678 he determined, entirely on his own initiative and without reference to London Office , that the settlement needed a proper church.
Until then divine services had been held in the largest room in the fort, the common room, which served as a chapel besides being put to other uses.
Master and his colleagues in council
contributed about half of the 800 odd Pagodas raised that is about 400 sterling pounds in those days and Elihu Yale, a Merchant on the Company's rolls contributing 15 Pagodas. Rest came mostly from other Merchants in the Company's service.
William Dixon was the Chief Gunner
of the East India Company's Madras Establishment and also an Engineer to the Army .The Governor instructed him to build the church. East India Compaany later did contribute to its construction .
The church was 80 feet by 56 feet when originally built with the separate tower added sometime later and conjoined to the old church built by Dixon .
The church resembles a fortified structure to meet the security needs of those days and St Mary's church almost finished as a bomb proof structure with over 5 ft thick walls having a vaulted roof of 4 ft
thick maximum and 2 ft minimum.
Its window shutters are about two foot wide ang more than 6 ft height .
When the French bombarded Madras in 1746, the church was one building in the fort, to come through unscathed.
The French did manage to damage the steeple though , when they attacked again in 1758 but that was not built by Dixon, since the tower was added only around 1701 and a spire in 1710.
Dixon, first castellated the parapet and never used wood in the structure to render it fire proof in the event of bombing.
The interior looks beautiful although the exterior is squat looking as a fortress should ..It has a nave with two aisles and a gallery at the far end from the altar. The roof is vaulted with rose ornaments in relief on the curved ceiling with classical touches .
The church itself derived its name
Since construction commenced on 25th March 1678, My Lady Day, so it came to be christened as the church of St Marys and consecrated on its completion on Thursday, the 28th of October 1680.
The Fort had had a Chaplain on its establishment since 1676 and the incumbent in 1680 was Richard Portman. He obtained a special licence from the Bishop of London to consecrate the church with Streynsham Master assusting him .
Being the oldest Anglican place of worship in whole of Asia and it is therefore associated with a number of events in British Indian history .
This is what makes this church so special, in addition to its construction and its charming interior.
The church now maintained by ASI of India still maintains a register, which is continuous since its 1680 inception, well preserved and the volumes from 1680 to 1819 are loaned to the Fort St George Museum, a stone's throw away from the church and certainly worth a visit.
A copy in thick vellum of the original register, copied in the 18th century, is on display inside the church and all original records from 1819 onwards are also available in the church for inspection, .which I did nor personally see.
The credit of first entry goes to the marriage of Elihu Yale to Catherine Hynmers, on 4th November 1680, and within a week of the original consecration with the Governor, Streynsham Master, giving away the bride.
The lady was the widow of Joseph Hynmers, a Member in Council and friend of Yale, who had died in April of that year and David Yale, the son of Eli and Catherine Yale, is buried in the original churchyard, having died in 1688. Yale went on to become Governor of Madras between 1687 - 92 later endowed a building after his name in the college which later came to be called Yale University, from his personal earning as a trader.
The most famous marriage recorded in the church register is, of course ,that of Robert Clive to Margaret Maskelyne, 18t February 1753.
The painting in the alter is by George Willison 1741 - 97 , a Scottish artist, who came out to Madras in 1774 with the patronage of Muhammad Ali, Nawab of the Carnatic, who himself ane to be based in Madras by this time.
St Mary's church in thii Fort deseves to be presented to the world for its rich heritage and history of British in India .
Its heattening to lnow it is under the very good care of the Church of South India and the maintenance is being taken care of by ASI ,India
This church in my view takes its place of pride in the historu of Chennai.
If one is a visitor to Chennai from any part of the world or India, it surely will be worth their while to visit this historical Anglican Church built inside
fort St George, the Seat of Power fir the Government of Tamil Nad, even today.
St Mary's in Fort St George, Madras was consecrated in the year 1680 which makes it one of the oldest Anglican church in Asia ,with very important historic significance in the evolution of Chennai or Madras .
Sadly history tells us that during the 3-year occupation of Fort St George by the French 1746 - 1749 , it was put to use as a water storage .
The church is within Fort St George , a fort built by the British as a secure trading post and completed in 1653 and then gradually kept expanding to its present size and then went on to become and remain the seat of the state government even today ..
The church was built with private contributions, with East India Company, who developed the fort , and on its own had no part in its Construction actually.
Streynsham Master 1640 - 1724, was appointed governor in 1678 after spending number of years with the Company based in Surat on the west coast of India .Soon after taking up the appointment in January 1678 he determined, entirely on his own initiative and without reference to London Office , that the settlement needed a proper church.
Until then divine services had been held in the largest room in the fort, the common room, which served as a chapel besides being put to other uses.
Master and his colleagues in council
contributed about half of the 800 odd Pagodas raised that is about 400 sterling pounds in those days and Elihu Yale, a Merchant on the Company's rolls contributing 15 Pagodas. Rest came mostly from other Merchants in the Company's service.
William Dixon was the Chief Gunner
of the East India Company's Madras Establishment and also an Engineer to the Army .The Governor instructed him to build the church. East India Compaany later did contribute to its construction .
The church was 80 feet by 56 feet when originally built with the separate tower added sometime later and conjoined to the old church built by Dixon .
The church resembles a fortified structure to meet the security needs of those days and St Mary's church almost finished as a bomb proof structure with over 5 ft thick walls having a vaulted roof of 4 ft
thick maximum and 2 ft minimum.
Its window shutters are about two foot wide ang more than 6 ft height .
When the French bombarded Madras in 1746, the church was one building in the fort, to come through unscathed.
The French did manage to damage the steeple though , when they attacked again in 1758 but that was not built by Dixon, since the tower was added only around 1701 and a spire in 1710.
Dixon, first castellated the parapet and never used wood in the structure to render it fire proof in the event of bombing.
The interior looks beautiful although the exterior is squat looking as a fortress should ..It has a nave with two aisles and a gallery at the far end from the altar. The roof is vaulted with rose ornaments in relief on the curved ceiling with classical touches .
The church itself derived its name
Since construction commenced on 25th March 1678, My Lady Day, so it came to be christened as the church of St Marys and consecrated on its completion on Thursday, the 28th of October 1680.
The Fort had had a Chaplain on its establishment since 1676 and the incumbent in 1680 was Richard Portman. He obtained a special licence from the Bishop of London to consecrate the church with Streynsham Master assusting him .
Being the oldest Anglican place of worship in whole of Asia and it is therefore associated with a number of events in British Indian history .
This is what makes this church so special, in addition to its construction and its charming interior.
The church now maintained by ASI of India still maintains a register, which is continuous since its 1680 inception, well preserved and the volumes from 1680 to 1819 are loaned to the Fort St George Museum, a stone's throw away from the church and certainly worth a visit.
A copy in thick vellum of the original register, copied in the 18th century, is on display inside the church and all original records from 1819 onwards are also available in the church for inspection, .which I did nor personally see.
The credit of first entry goes to the marriage of Elihu Yale to Catherine Hynmers, on 4th November 1680, and within a week of the original consecration with the Governor, Streynsham Master, giving away the bride.
The lady was the widow of Joseph Hynmers, a Member in Council and friend of Yale, who had died in April of that year and David Yale, the son of Eli and Catherine Yale, is buried in the original churchyard, having died in 1688. Yale went on to become Governor of Madras between 1687 - 92 later endowed a building after his name in the college which later came to be called Yale University, from his personal earning as a trader.
The most famous marriage recorded in the church register is, of course ,that of Robert Clive to Margaret Maskelyne, 18t February 1753.
The painting in the alter is by George Willison 1741 - 97 , a Scottish artist, who came out to Madras in 1774 with the patronage of Muhammad Ali, Nawab of the Carnatic, who himself ane to be based in Madras by this time.
St Mary's church in thii Fort deseves to be presented to the world for its rich heritage and history of British in India .
Its heattening to lnow it is under the very good care of the Church of South India and the maintenance is being taken care of by ASI ,India
This church in my view takes its place of pride in the historu of Chennai.
Written August 29, 2019
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Issac0616
Chennai (Madras), India12 contributions
Apr 2017 • Business
Don't miss to visit this church located inside St.George Fort. Plan for a day when there is no TN assembly proceedings to avoid the crowd and minimal security checks. Must visit in Chennai. One of the oldest church built bY British people. Don't miss to see the Oldest pipe organ in Chennai. Old cemetery of Bristish era can be found nearby. Antique look and building atmosphere takes you to the Bristish time when you read the epitaph of many officers buried here.
Written March 10, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
ARedRose
Australia60 contributions
Jan 2018 • Friends
I enjoyed the peace and quiet of this little church that seemed somewhat neglected. Apparently Clive of India is buried here, but I could not find his grave or any reference to him in the church. Probably the best part of the Fort but you can walk around and see older parts, very run down with lots of rubbish about
Written March 8, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Peter S
Canberra, Australia345 contributions
Jan 2018 • Solo
St Mary's church's origins date back to the very beginnings of English rule in Madras - the gravestones that cover the ground inside its gates testify to that. The fabric of the church's interior is later, but is still evocative of the British period, not least in the many memorials on the walls.
But the most impressive thing about the church is that it is not just an historical monument - I was there on a Wednesday lunchtime, and there were easily a dozen people using it, for prayer, Bible-reading or (possibly) having a quiet snooze. Most were members of various Indian uniformed services or government servants employed nearby in the huge and busy fort.
There was an interesting-looking booklet on sale 'A Walk around St Mary's' which I would have bought but there was no one around to take my money. Still, it was a most enjoyable and interesting visit: highly recommended.
But the most impressive thing about the church is that it is not just an historical monument - I was there on a Wednesday lunchtime, and there were easily a dozen people using it, for prayer, Bible-reading or (possibly) having a quiet snooze. Most were members of various Indian uniformed services or government servants employed nearby in the huge and busy fort.
There was an interesting-looking booklet on sale 'A Walk around St Mary's' which I would have bought but there was no one around to take my money. Still, it was a most enjoyable and interesting visit: highly recommended.
Written January 10, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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