In the year 1540, a Portuguese trading vessel was caught up in a terrible storm deep in the Indian Ocean and was crippled with its hind mast broken in two. The captain, a devout Catholic, made a vow that if the ship ever made landfall, he would build a church to thank the Lord for his crew's deliverance. The ship eventually drifted close to here and was brought into safety at the nearby ancient Pandian port of Kulasekharapattinam. The captain kept his promise and built a cross with the broken mast of the ship and a church. Both exist to this day. Later, in 1542, St. Francis Xavier came and spent some time here and lived in a grotto near the Church of the Captain's Cross.
Many a Tamil movie including Neethane En Ponvasantham, Singam 2 and Mani Ratnam's Kadal have been filmed on location here. They come here for the beauty of the place.
Numerous historic churches are around every corner.
It is a picturesque fishing village. It is located 51 km or about an hour and a half drive south of Thoothukudi.
This is the Neithal. *In ancient Tamil literature from the Sangam period, which is commonly thought of as between 200 BCE to 200 CE, the land was divided into five geographical regions. They were the seashore, desert, farmland, forest and hills. The poetry for each region was distinct. The Neithal is the seashore.
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