St. Xaviers Cathedral, Kottar

One of the oldest churches in South India, St. Xaviers Cathedral in Kottar, Nagercoil, was built around 1600 AD by St. Francis Xavier, who did missionary work across the Kanyakumari coast. The church is a Roman Catholic Latin Rite shrine dedicated to Mary the Mother of God and was elevated to the status of a Cathedral in 1930. Every year from November 24 to December 3, over five lakh pilgrims from Tamil Nadu and Kerala gather here for the ten-day feast, one of the largest Catholic festivals in South India.