Marth Mariam Cathedral, Thrissur

Marth Mariam Cathedral in Thrissur, Kerala, is the seat of India's Chaldean Syrian Church, which belongs to the Assyrian Church of the East. It was also the first Christian church to stand inside the fort gates of the city.

Its beginnings go back to 1814, when the Cochin ruler Sakthan Thampuran invited the Pazhayakoottukar, an old Christian community of India, to settle in Thrissur and strengthen trade in his new city, and established the church for them. It was once known as Our Lady of Dolours. A group there backing the Chaldean Catholic bishop Elias Mellus later broke with the Catholic hierarchy, kept the building, and gave it the name Mart Mariam.