Tranquebar - Danish Settlement at the Coromandel Coast (1620-1845)

In the year 1620 the young Danish Admiral Ove Giedde arrived at the Coromandel Coast in South East India on board the sailing ship The Elephant, in search of a suitable place to establish a Danish trade settlement. Four years previously, in Denmark, the East India Trading had been established, with the purpose of gaining a foothold in the extremely lucrative trade between India and Europe. Ove Giedde succeeded in obtaining permission from the Nayak Ragunatha of Thanjavur (Tanjore) to establish a fortified trading station at Tranquebar, 250 milies south of Madras and 20 miles north of the Portuguese settlement at Negapatnam.

In 1620 Tranguebar consisted mainly of fishermen’s huts and a number of houses inhabited by IndoPortuguese and Muslim merchants. There were also several pagodas, a mosque, and a Catholic chapel. In the course of the 1620s, the Danes erected a fortress immediately south of this small building, which is preserved practically unaltered until the present day, housing rooms for the governor, merchants and chaplain on the first floor, while the entire lower floor was used as a warehouse.

Behind these protective – but also restrictive – walls the Danes lived through their first 60-70 years in Tranquebar. Towards the end of the 1600s, a town wall was erected, encircling the entire township, and this made it possible to move many of the activities of the trading station from the fortress out into the town itself. The main street, leading from the Parade Ground in front of Dansborg to the town gate, was named King Street, and it was here that the Danes primarily settled. In the 1690s, a large building complex was erected for the civil colonial administration. It was named the "Court of Justice", and diagonally opposite this the Church of Zion was built in 1701, which was to become the new church for the Danish congregation. In the 1690s many Danes bought houses in King Street and on the Parade Ground, and gradually, a small Danish township took share.

In 1706 the first two protestant missionaries arrived in Tranquebar, and soon their comprehensive missionary and teaching activities made their unmistakable mark on the town. Soon after, in 1709, the missionaries bought a large complex of buildings in the best end of King Street, immediately next door to the Church of Zion, and in 1717-18 they erected the remarkable Church of New Jerusalem on the opposite side of the street.

During the 18th century he Danish population seldom numbered more than 150-200 people. The colony never managed to develop into the thriving trade metropolis dreamed of in Copenhagen, and in 1777 the Danish state took over Tranquebar from the Trading Company. This resulted in renewed building activities during the 1780s and 1790s – a period which also enjoyed an economic boom.

From 1620 and right up until 1784 the small rooms of Dansborg formed the governor’s official residence but in 1784 he was installed in a newly – purchased, splendid governor’s house on the opposite side of the Parade Ground. New barracks were erected for the soldiers of the garrison, the fortifications were modernized and in 1792 the present town gate was erected.

In the year 1790 a population census was carried out in Tranquebar. It showed that the town inside the walls was inhabited by 157 Danes, 20 British and French, 62 IndoPortuguese and 3.482 Indians, of which 585 were Muslims. By far the largest part of the colony’s population – a number of 20.000 – inhabited the surrounding area of approximately 15 square miles, which since 1670 had belonged to the settlement. Compared to the capitals of the British and French colonies, Madras and Pondicherry,

Tranquebar never developed beyond anything but a small provincial town, nevertheless, it became a provincial town with very much its own individuality. In the Danish quarter the houses were built close together, as was the custom at home. In this way a long continuous steetscape was created, which looked Danish, but which was not very practical in a tropical climate, where a free movement of air is of the great importance. During the 1700s many houses were made more comfortable. Pitched roofs were replaced by flat roof terraces, and almost all Danes erected colonnaded verandas and porches in front of their houses as protection against sun and rain.

The idioms of neoclassicism, which from the end of the 1700s became the prevalent building style in the Danish part of Tranquebar, provided a worthy setting for the lives of the royal colonial officials. Building materials were ready to hand in Trnaquebar. There were plenty of local craftsmen, whose skill and hard work were often admired by the Danes.

Economic depression: From around 1800, Tranquebar lost all importance as a centre of trade, and the Danish Government began to consider selling it. During those years many of the Danish houses were badly neglected. In 1845, the colony was sold to the British East India Company.

During the remainder of the 19th century Trnaquebar was allowed to remain in this sleeping state. Industrial development bypassed the town, and the best preserved Danish building were bought by Catholic and Protestant institutions who turned the spacious old houses into schools and teachers training colleges. Tranquebar was transformed into the educational town, a number of Danish buildings still remain, representing unique example of tropical colonial architecture.

The fortress of Dansborg is of great interest. Its buildings are practically unaltered since the end of the 1700s and this makes Dansborg into something unique on the Coromandel Coast, where all the Portuguese and Dutch fortresses from the 16th and 17th centuries have disappeared.

Dansborg main building contains two stories, during the early years of the Danish period the vaulted rooms on the first floor housed the colony’s top level administration, and it was, literally speaking, placed on top of what constituted the sole raison d`etre of the Danes in Tranquebar: the precious spices and textiles which were stored in the gloomy cellar below.

After the sale of Tranquebar to the British, the colony was soon forgotten in Denmark - many Danes considered it a defeat - which they wanted to forget as soon as possible. However, after the Second World War, the Danes started to rediscover their colonial past, and the interest in Tranquebar increased rapidly. Architects became aware of the remaining colonial buildings, and they were soon followed by historians and anthropologist.

Picturing Tranquebar in 2006.
Photo credit Dr. Nils Finn Much – Peterson