Kara

The building was once a Portuguese mint for silver coins, then home to the Dutch East India Company, whose VOC emblem still marks the threshold, and later an English plantation manager's bungalow. Its restoration was carried out by the architects Goetz Hagmuller, from Austria, and Bijoy Jain, from Bombay. The result is part Dutch, part art deco and part modern minimalism, behind scalloped walls on Ridsdale Road at the Parade Ground.

There are eight rooms in two wings. The three heritage rooms have lofty ceilings and split-level mezzanines that serve as reading corners or take an extra bed, with wooded interiors, tiled roofs and open-to-air bathrooms; the largest has a yard that doubles as a shower. The modern wing is sparer, each room carrying a single work of art, with views of the garden and the overhanging trees. The largest opens onto the Parade Ground.

The art deco heritage wing holds work by modern masters and the minimalist wing work by contemporary artists from Kerala, with a contemporary art gallery housed on the premises and more hung through the cafe and common spaces. The kitchen borrows recipes from the cultures that make up Fort Kochi.