On your way to the famous Jew Town of Mattancherry, you need to make a pitstop at the Dutch Palace, a 16th-century two-storied palace built by (here's the kicker) the Portuguese. Confused? Pay a ticket fee of INR 5 and enter the museum to find out. The palace, which is also known as Mattancherry Palace, is built in the traditional Kerela naalukettu (quadrangular) model with four separate wings and each wing housing artefacts, portraits, and replicas of the old maps of Cochin you'd have seen at Bastion Bungalow, and of course murals. The first wing that you enter is the Ramayana Hall which features a 300-square-feet mural depicting the entire Ramayana. Photography is not allowed here but honestly, no photos can capture the beauty that's in front of you, so we suggest you take the time to soak it in.
The other wings include life-sized portraits of the royal members of the Cochin Kingdom — we recommend you go to Hill Palace to see the grandeur and learn about the history of the Kingdom — along with royal swords, palanquins, royal attires, weapons, and even coins and jewellery. There's also another mural room that features some incomplete murals. The history room is where you'll find out how the palace was originally built by the Portuguese and then the Dutch took it over and renovated it and gave it as a gift to the then king, Veera Kerala Verma.
The wings open out to the central courtyard that houses the temple of the royal deity Pazhayannur Bhagavathi. You can visit the temple from another entrance.
