Built by the Portuguese in 1505, the church was elevated to a Cathedral by Pope Paul IV in 1558. Spared by the Dutch conquerors of Cochin who destroyed many Catholic buildings in 1663, it later fell into the hands of the British who demolished it when they took over Cochin in 1795 For almost a hundred years there was no church on the site, until Bishop Dom Govem Vereira commissioned a new building in 1887, Consecrated in 1905, Santa Cruz was proclaimed a Basilica by the Pope John Paul II in 1984. Typical structure a mixture of Kerala-Porteuguese-Gothic-Burrock styles.