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Puducherry, long known as Pondicherry, is the capital of the Union Territory of Puducherry on India's southeast coast, famous for its French Quarter, its seaside promenade and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. A French colony until 1954, its old town still keeps colonial buildings, churches, statues and a planned grid of streets beside the Bay of Bengal.
Most visitors stay in White Town, the grid of quiet streets between the old canal and the sea. From here it is a short walk to Promenade Beach, Bharathi Park, the Pondicherry Museum and the Manakula Vinayagar Temple, while the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Lady of Angels Church show the city's French Catholic heritage.
The Sri Aurobindo Ashram draws seekers from around the world, and a short drive north the township of Auroville centres on the golden Matrimandir. Beyond the city lie Paradise Beach at the mouth of the Chunnambar, the birds of Ousteri Lake and the Pichavaram mangroves. October to March brings the most pleasant weather.
Promenade Beach is Puducherry's rocky seafront, a 1.2-kilometre stretch of Goubert Avenue running from the War Memorial to Dupleix Park. Its sand has been lost to erosion behind a 2 km seawall, and the walk passes the Gandhi statue, the 19th-century lighthouse and the Chief Secretariat.
White Town is the old French Quarter of Puducherry, separated from the Indian Quarter by a canal and running down to the sea. Its streets keep colonial buildings, churches and statues in a planned grid, and landmarks such as Raj Nivas, Bharathi Park and the Pondicherry Museum lie within it.
Bharathi Park, also called the Government Park, is the green centre of White Town in Puducherry, beside Raj Nivas, where the Lieutenant Governor lives. At its centre stands the Aayi Mandapam, a white monument from the era of Napoleon III that honours a woman who gave up her house for a reservoir.
Pondicherry Museum in the French Quarter of Puducherry holds 81 Chola bronze sculptures made by the lost-wax method, one of the largest collections of Chola bronzes anywhere. It also shows stone sculptures from the Pallava and Chola periods and finds from Arikamedu, the ancient port near the city.
The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus stands on the south boulevard of Puducherry, a striking Gothic Revival church. Inside, rare stained glass panels show scenes from the life of Christ and the saints, and it has become an important pilgrimage site for Christians in South India.
Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Puducherry is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore, known as Samba Kovil. Jesuits built a church here in 1692 with help from Louis XIV, and the present cathedral, raised on earlier foundations, is one of the city's oldest sites.
Our Lady of Angels Church is a Greco-Roman style church in Puducherry's French Quarter, built in 1855 during the reign of Napoleon III. Known locally as the White Chapel, it is the only church in the city that holds mass in French, Tamil and English, and it makes a calm stop near the seafront.
Manakula Vinayagar Temple is a Ganesha temple in the old town of Puducherry and is older than the French settlement. Under Governor Dupleix there were attempts to destroy it, but it was spared because of strong protests from the Hindu population and the threat of British and Maratha invasion.
Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a spiritual community in Puducherry, founded in 1926 by Sri Aurobindo and his collaborator Mirra Alfassa, known as the Mother. At its heart is a tree-shaded courtyard with the white-marble samadhi of both teachers, and the ashram runs a school with over 400 students.
Auroville is an experimental township about 8 km northwest of Puducherry, founded in 1968 by the Mother and designed by the architect Roger Anger. Delegates from 124 nations attended its inauguration, and by 2018 it had 2,814 residents from 54 countries, around half of them from India.
The Matrimandir is the golden meditation sphere at the centre of Auroville near Puducherry, its foundation stone laid on 21 February 1971 and its sphere completed in 2008. Clad in golden discs, it holds an inner chamber with the largest optically perfect glass globe in the world.
Arikamedu is an archaeological site about 4 kilometres from Puducherry, identified as Podouke, an ancient port named in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Digs by Mortimer Wheeler in 1945 found Roman amphorae, pottery, lamps and beads, proving trade with the Mediterranean about 2,000 years ago.
Paradise Beach is a public beach south of Puducherry, where the Chunnambar, as the Sankaraparani River is called near its mouth, flows into the Bay of Bengal. It lies close to the Chunnambar Boat House and its backwater resort, about 8 km from the city along the Cuddalore Main Road.
Pichavaram is a mangrove forest in Tamil Nadu and a day trip from Puducherry, 15 km from Chidambaram and 42 km from Cuddalore. Covering about 45 square km of islands and channels, it is one of the largest mangrove forests in India and draws egrets, storks, herons, spoonbills and pelicans.
Ousteri Lake, also called Ossudu Lake, is the largest lake in the Puducherry region, covering about 800 hectares on the border with Tamil Nadu. Once a traditional irrigation tank, it is an important wetland where migratory birds stay through the year, and a small boat club serves visitors.
The Botanical Garden in Puducherry, south of the New Bus Stand, was laid out in 1826 in the ornate French style, with pruned trees, flower beds, gravel paths and fountains. The botanist Perrottet turned it into a true botanical garden in 1831, and a small children's museum stands next to it.
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