Bharathi Park

 Bharathi Park

Bharathi Park is located on the Rue Saint Gilles Street in White Town, Pondicherry. The landscape is dotted with modern monuments, old sculptures, statues, stone carvings, and stately buildings. The main attraction of the park is the magnificent structure in white known as the Aayi Mandapam. It is a Greco-Roman structure built by Louis Gurre in 1854. The park is divided into four equal parts by walkways. The park comprises flowerbeds, well-kept lawns, and exquisite fountains.

n 1700, after capturing the Puducherry region from the Dutch, the French built a fort named Fort Louis and erected a massive wall around the city. The English beat the French and demolished the fort during the Carnatic War in the 1760s. During Napoleon III's reign as Emperor of France, the French built a harbor and lighthouse with Aayi Mandapam in the center.
The monument celebrates the gift of water to the French city. It is named after Ayi, a lady courtesan who had demolished her own house to build a water reservoir for the city. The Park was used as a parade field for the French Precinct until the 1940s.
The Government of Puducherry turned the area into a park in the 1950s. The Bharathi Park is named after the great TamilNadu poet Bharathisadan. The park was refurbished in 2006 for public use with a fence and four iron gates between beautiful stone pillars forming entrances to the park in four directions.