Tranquebar

Tranquebar, or Tharangambadi in Tamil, is a small coastal town in Mayiladuthurai district, roughly three hours by road from Thanjavur; the Tamil name is usually explained as the shore of singing waves. On 19 November 1620 it became the first Danish trading post in India, after Ove Gjedde, sent by King Christian IV, reached terms with Raghunatha Nayak of Tanjore, to whom the Danes then paid yearly tribute. Apart from a brief British occupation in 1808, it stayed Danish until 1845, when the British East India Company bought it.

The oldest monument is the Masilamaninathar Temple of 1306. Fort Dansborg, the second-largest Danish fort after Kronborg, has a four-sided rampart with corner bastions, barracks, stores, a jail and a two-storey main block, and now houses a museum of porcelain, manuscripts, glass and weapons from the Vijayanagara and Thanjavur Nayak periods. In 1705 Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, later known for putting the Bible into Tamil, started Protestant mission work in the town, and the town has quiet beaches for sunset walks.