The factory was inaugurated in 1719 by Sir Godefroid Gollet de La Merveille (a Frenchman), and the building of a fort started at that time.

The fort built by the Belgian in Covelong during the Ostend factory times has been made today the Taj Fisherman's Cove, a private luxury beach resort.

Apart from being a popular tourist destination because of the wide beaches, the shallow ocean and the peaceful backwaters, history has influenced the existence of important places of worship for Hindus, Christians and Muslims.

The construction of the Catholic Church, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, begun some time between 1770 and 1780 but it was left incomplete.

It was a wealthy Portuguese merchant-prince who was a major land-owner in early 19th Century Madras, Sir John de Monte, who completed it between 1800 and 1808.