Fodor's Expert Review Santa Cruz Cathedral Basilica

This Gothic-looking basilica, set in spacious grounds, has an interior that's colorfully painted with scenes and decorations that some find gaudy and others find gorgeous. The king of Cochin granted the Portuguese permission to build a fort and later a church in 1505 for their assistance in defeating the Zamorins of Calicut. For a while that structure was used as a Dutch armory. It was razed by the British in 1795, and in 1904 the current structure was completed, with a pillar of the original church within. Pope Paul IV elevated the church to a cathedral in 1558, and Pope John Paul II made it a basilica in 1984.