Landmarks
Sites & Landmarks
From Arikamedu's Roman-era ruins to the French Consulate on the seafront, Pondicherry's landmarks span more than two thousand years of history.
Colonial Heritage
Colonial Heritage
Promenade Beach
A 1.5 km seafront walk where fishermen cast nets at dawn and three centuries of history line the boulevard. Wa…
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Colonial Heritage
Lok Nivas
The same building. Three sovereignties. Dupleix used it to run a protectorate over half of south India. The Br…
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Colonial Heritage
White Town (Ville Blanche)
A grid of ochre-yellow coral-stone mansions, bougainvillea walls, and streets named Rue Dupleix, Rue Suffren, …
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Colonial Heritage
French Consulate
You are looking at the French Consulate, one of the rarest buildings in the world: a colonial power's active d…
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Colonial Heritage
Romain Rolland Library
Welcome to the Romain Rolland Library, founded in 1827 as the Bibliothèque Publique de Pondichéry, one of the …
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Colonial Heritage
La Mairie (Town Hall)
You are looking at La Mairie de Pondichéry, the Town Hall built in 1870 on Goubert Avenue facing the sea. Its …
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Religious Site
Religious Site
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
A political refugee who became a philosopher of human transformation. Sri Aurobindo arrived in Pondicherry in …
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Religious Site
Sacred Heart Basilica
France shipped 28 stained-glass windows from a factory in France to a tropical Indian city, not because it mad…
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Religious Site
Notre-Dame des Anges
On this seafront site since 1687: four churches, same spot. The twin cream towers are the first French colonia…
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Nature & Garden
Nature & Garden
Bharathi Park
The ceremonial heart of French Pondicherry, and its oldest public garden. Eight acres of shaded lawns, Greco-R…
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Nature & Garden
Botanical Garden
1,500 plant varieties across 30 sections, including fossil plants and giant trees that have been growing since…
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Monument & Street
Monument & Street
French War Memorial
You are standing in front of the Monument aux Combattants, the French War Memorial on Goubert Avenue. It comme…
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Monument & Street
Customs Building
A circular colonial building on Goubert Avenue that has stood at the edge of Pondicherry's seafront since the …
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Monument & Street
Dupleix Statue
He won half of India for France, then his own company fired him. Standing on the seafront of what is now an In…
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Monument & Street
Gandhi Statue
You are looking at the Gandhi statue on Goubert Avenue, unveiled on Republic Day, 26 January 1965, and standin…
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Monument & Street
Joan of Arc Statue
You are looking at a white marble statue of Joan of Arc in the garden of Notre-Dame des Anges, donated in 1920…
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Monument & Street
Victor Schoelcher Bust
You are looking at a bust of Victor Schoelcher (1804–1893), the French politician who abolished slavery throug…
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Monument & Street
Old Lighthouse
Built in 1836 by colonial engineer Louis Guerre and standing 29 metres tall, the Old Lighthouse guided ships t…
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Monument & Street
European Cemetery
You are standing at the European Cemetery on Rue Victor Simonnel, in use since around 1700 and one of the olde…
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Monument & Street
Walking Tour of White Town
A two-kilometre loop through the only French colonial town in India that survived decolonisation intact. Orang…
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Monument & Street
Golconde
India's first reinforced, cast-in-place concrete building, completed in 1942 by a Japanese-American architect …
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