Luz church
Anyone passing the main road connecting Mylapore to Alwarpet must have noticed that the road they are travelling is named Luz Church Road. Why is it so? There is a old church apposite Nageswararao Park in a small lane called Kennedy Street. This church in the Local parlance is called Kattu Koil due to the fact that this area was a forest area covered with wild bushes, trees and plants more than a century ago. It is called Luz Church. Legend has it that a group of Portuguese sailors who were caught in a storm in Bay of Bengal in the early decades of the 16th century landed near Santhome following a Light which brought them to this spot. As a measure of their thanksgiving they constructed a Church here and called it Luz Church. Luz in Portuguese means Light. A tablet on the right hand side wall of the church informs it was consecrated in the year 1516 AD. The church is also called the Church of Our Lady o...