Schwartz Church

Schwartz Church, formally the New Jerusalem Church, was built in 1779 in an unusual act of royal patronage: the Maratha king Serfoji II commissioned it in gratitude to the Danish missionary Reverend Christian Friedrich Schwartz, who had been the young king's guardian and tutor. The church is one of the oldest in Thanjavur and stands as a rare example of a Hindu monarch sponsoring a Christian place of worship. The building retains its original 18th-century character and houses a marble statue of Schwartz, gifted by the East India Company.