Chettinad consists of 75 villages, and is the cultural home of the Chettiars, a community that made its fortune as money lenders, merchants and jewellery dealers. There aren't many Chettiars in Chettinad now. We're told that most of them migrated in the 19th and 20th centuries to Sri Lanka, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia, from where they sent back lavish fittings and furnishings for their ancestral homes.
The houses still stand and what magnificent mansions they are (or in some cases, were). We're staying overnight at Visalam which was built nearly a century ago. Its a typical Chettinad house with a mix of Art Deco, colonial and south Indian architectural styles,. It was built by Ramanathan Chettiar for his eldest daughter, Visalakshi, in the 1930s.
CGH Earth is a hotel/hospitality group in India that specialises in preserving the appearance and authenticity of the properties it manages. It has leased Visalam from its owners and still feels more like a (rather grand) family home than a hotel. It has been sensitively restored to ensure enough comfort for the paying guests without spoiling its itegrity.
Some pics of our room and the hotel grounds generally
Steps up from the entrance hall to the bedroom/lounge area.
Doorway from bedroom onto balcony
It is a lovely balcony with great views over the gardens ..... but its in full sun and far too hot for us to sit out there
central atrium
pool area
We visited a couple of the 'empty' mansions which have 'caretakers' in situ just to keep the places reasonably clean and problem-free. They get free accommodation and a meagre salary so like to augment this by showing nosy tourists around for a small donation. They don't have access to any of the many bedrooms etc (I guess that makes sense) but we saw enough to gain an idea of how grand these places were before they were abandoned. The problem is that after a couple of centuries the ownership has become complicated with more and more family members/heirs being produced. One place we viewed had 50 family members staking a claim but none wanted to actually take it on and undertake all the refurbishment. So they stand empty, gathering dust.
The entrance hall has solid teak wood pillars which are around 20 foot tall
Wonderful ornate carved detail to the tops of pillars and the ceilings
Huge door frame from hallway into the central courtyard area
The tiles are locally made (in the traditional way I described earlier following our visit to a local manufacturer)
Some are in better shape than others
and some are currently being worked on ... the bricklayers were men but guess who was doing all the heavy carrying?
Comfortable seating in the hallway of one of the empty properties we looked at
This is what they should look like .... this is known locally as the glass house but the public isn't allowed to enter/look round
Are there many people staying at your hotel as it looks quite deserted. There must've been a heck of a lot of wealth at one time as these properties are quite spectacular. Wouldn't fancy dusting all that wood though!
ReplyDeleteWe only saw 4 other couples at Dinner in the evening so I guess it isn't full although there are only 15 rooms available in total. The mansions are huge so realistically they would need to be shared occupancy, or managed as hotels (like the Visalam where we are staying.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful buildings!!! Thanks for sharing !
ReplyDeleteThey are stunning buildings Meera. Such a shame to see them standing empty, although there are caretakers living on the ground floor of some to keep them reasonably tidy
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