Chavara Bhavan

Chavara Bhavan is the family home of Blessed Kuriakose Elias Chavara, a 19th-century Catholic priest and social reformer, and the place where he was born. The house is around 250 years old, still keeps its original structure, and now receives large numbers of pilgrims who come to pray.

Inside, a museum follows Chavara's life through photographs, artefacts and his personal belongings, and the room of his birth is preserved. Displays cover his work in education and his role in establishing India's first native congregation of religious sisters. The usual approach to the house is by boat across the Alappuzha backwaters.