singanadu') had trade relations with China and exchanged embassies. According to the records of the Tang Dynasty (618 AD to 913 AD), Quilon was their chief port of call before the 7th century AD. The Chinese trade decreased about 600 AD and was again revived in the 13th century.
In 1291, John of Montecorvino, a Franciscan monk, became a priest at Quilon. Friar JordanusCatalini, who arrived in 1321, effected large-scale Latin Catholic conversions and was appointed Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Quilon in 1329. Friar Jordanus built a church, called St. Georges Church, with the patronage of Nestorian spice merchants at Jona-ka-puram (the seat of Jordanus Catalini )in Kollam and wrote Mirabilia Descripta. However, after Giovanni de' Marignolli in 1353, this Latin church was converted to a Nestorian church by the Nestorian Christians, and when Portuguese arrived in 1498, only Nestorian Christianity existed in Kerala in a visible way.
Marco Polo, who visited China's Kublai Khan's court, traveled in 1292 through Kollam on his return journey to Venice, and gave an interesting account of the flourishing port of Kollam (coilum, as he called it) and its trade relations inter connectivity with China in the east and Europe to the west. Chinnakada, (China-kada), the city center, was so named after the Chinese merchants. The increase in commercial activity resulted in establishment of a flourishing Chinese settlement at Kollam.
Kollam during Portuguese, Dutch and British conquests (16th to 18th centuries)
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish a trading center in Tangasseri, Kollam in 1502, which became the centre of trade in pepper. In the wars with the Moors/Arabs that followed, the ancient church of St Thomas was destroyed. In 1517, the Portuguese built the St. Thomas Fort in Thangasseri, which was destroyed in the subsequent wars with the Dutch. In 1661, the
