Our Lady of Angels Church, Karaikal

Known locally as Karaikal Church, Our Lady of Angels is the oldest church in the town and a working Roman Catholic church on Church Street, which is thought to take its name from it. A first church, believed to date from 1739, was destroyed by the British; after Karaikal passed fully to the French following the Treaty of Paris, they rebuilt it in the Neo-Gothic style in the 1820s. The tower, added in 1891, rises 133 ft (41 m), the tallest structure in Karaikal.

The church faces east towards the Bay of Bengal. Its tower ends in a cone on an octagonal base holding three clocks, and its five large bells can be heard up to 5 km away. Inside are stained glass windows and marble altars, the main one now holding a Holy Cross. Locally it is Thetheravu Matha Kovil, the temple of the mother who comforts the desolate, and on 15 August the Thetheravu Matha festival takes Mary's image around the streets on a chariot.