St. George Basilica, Angamaly

St. George Syro-Malabar Catholic Basilica stands in Angamaly, Ernakulam district. Pope Benedict XVI raised the St George Forane Church to a minor basilica on 24 June 2009. With an underground parish hall, often used for wedding receptions, it covers about 24,000 square feet.

After the fall of the Christian settlement at Kodungallur, Angamaly became the leading St Thomas Christian centre, which explains its three old churches standing close together. In the 1550s there was a single church, the Valiyapalli; a second, the Cheriapalli, was built in 1575 as the archdeacon's seat, and in 1577 Metropolitan Abraham founded a cathedral of Mar Hormizd at the east end of the bazaar. An account of 1606 by Antonio de Gouvea describes the three big churches of the town.