Straddling the Phet River about 120km south of Bangkok, the provincial capital of PHETCHABURI (sometimes “Phetburi”) has been settled ever since the eleventh century, when the Khmers ruled the region, but only really got going six hundred years later, when it flourished as a trading post between the Andaman Sea ports and Ayutthaya. Despite periodic incursions from the Burmese, the town gained a reputation as a cultural centre – as the ornamentation of its older temples testifies – and after the new capital was established in Bangkok it became a favourite country retreat of Rama IV, who had a hilltop palace, Phra Nakhon Khiri, built here in the 1850s. Modern Phetchaburi is known for its limes and rose apples but its main claim to fame is as one of Thailand’s finest sweet-making centres, the essential ingredient for its assortment of khanom being the sugar extracted from the sweet-sapped palms that cover the province. This being very much a cottage industry, today’s downtown Phetchaburi has lost relatively little of the ambience that so attracted Rama IV: the central riverside area is hemmed in by historic wats in varying states of disrepair, along with plenty of traditional wooden shophouses. The town’s top three temples, described below, can be seen on a leisurely two-hour circular walk beginning from Chomrut Bridge, while Phetchaburi’s other significant sight, the palace-museum at Phra Nakhon Khiri, is on a hill about 1km west of the bridge.