St. Thomas Mar Thoma Church, Kozhencherry

St. Thomas Mar Thoma Church, known locally as Kozhencherry Valiya Palli, stands in the centre of Kozhencherry, Pathanamthitta district, beside the Pamba river. The Maramon Convention, described as Asia's largest Christian gathering, meets every February on the river's sand bed nearby.

The first church here, a thatched building at Vennapra, dates from 1599. After it was torn down in a dispute, the Thekkumkur king granted tax-free land where the Kochupalli, or little church, was later built in 1774. After the split in the Malankara Church in 1836, the Kochupalli passed to the Mar Thoma faction, and following a lawsuit over renovation costs in 1893 it became theirs alone. As the congregation grew, a new church was raised on the adjoining plot to the west; Titus II Mar Thoma laid its foundation stone in 1932 and it was dedicated on 8 April 1941, then the biggest church in Travancore. Its walls are of finely shaped stone, and the parish now counts over 1,780 families.