chennais dutch connection has been an integral part of its rich history and culture the remains that we see today are that of a blooming muslin trade off the coromandel coast stories about how they managed to take over the region are as colourful as varied one of them is about how a dutch ship once stopped at pulicat in 1602 ce asking the locals for fresh drinking water and the rest is historywithin a short span of time the dutch had built fort geldria 1610 ce established a trade cotton route to the rest of asia including japan and china an estimated 4500 ships from europe are said to have docked at pulicat during the 16th and 17th centuries the dutch soon discovered sadras known back then as sadurangapattinam which though mainly inhabited by weavers was known for its thriving brickmaking industry the dutch not only used the bricks to build their own castle there they also set up a factory and began exporting the bricks to europe for over a century the sadras fort remained under dutch control and then the british took over in 1818 in a battle the ravages of which can still be seen in this regionsadras fort in 1930ssadras fort todaytoday sadras fort is under archeological survey of india asi care pranav pandey an asi staff looking after its maintenance tells us my job includes cleaning the premises clearing wild plants growing on the walls of the fort and its compound i also have to constantly make sure theres no unpleasant activity going around the fort no illegal construction is allowed within 100 metres of the forts radius i take pictures and report if there are any damages to the monument he adds we get many visitors from the netherlands they come here to visit the dutch cemeteries they read out the dutch words engraved on the cemeteries to me a makeover for sadrasdr amv subramanyam superintending archaeologist archaeological survey of india chennai circle reveals that a proposal is being prepared for the development of sadras fort next year well present a proposal to the government that has detailed development plans for sadras fort this will happen in a phased manner we would plant trees construct toilets develop a garden once all this is done itll attract tourists though asi doesnt have any such proposals for pulicat it continues the regular maintenance of the cemeteries therehe added we have 411 monuments in tamil nadu we cannot distribute all the staff members to these monuments as weve to prioritise some monuments where the footfall is more pulicats dutch connectionin pulicat one can still spot dutch houses of course now occupied by local residents however fort geldria is in ruins organisations like art architecture research development education aarde a notforprofit architecture and design service have taken over the conservation of two dutch buildings one is a hospital and another a church the natural and built heritage are intertwined our vision