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Goa Churches
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Se Cathedral Church ||Ruins
of Church of St. Augustine ||
 One
of Goa's important institutions, Goa's famous and magnificent churches are
largely a legacy of Portuguese colonization
Church building was one of the main occupations of the early Portuguese
and in fact one of Vasco da Gama's main missions for finding the sea route
to India was to "seek Christians and spices".
Christianity was forced upon with religious fervor by the Portuguese
during the period of the "Inquisition" with wide scale destruction of
temples and this continued till the official end of the "Inquisition" in
Goa in 1812. Most of Goa's churches were built on the very site of former
temples. The confiscated lands of the temples were handed over to the
church and the communidades. In fact, the first Hindu temple allowed to be
constructed by the Portuguese in 300 years was in 1818 at Panaji.
With a significant population of Goans being Christians for many
generations today, the Church is an important factor in Goa's social ,
cultural and religious life. For example, the contribution of the Church
to education in Goa is immense. Today the churches are all part of the
Archdiocese of Goa and function with its help, many are also protected
sites.
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Se Cathedral Chruch
 One
of the most ancient and celebrated religious buildings of Goa, this
magnificent 16th century monument to the Roman Catholic rule in Goa under
the Portuguese is the largest church in Asia. The Cathedral is dedicated
to St. Catherine of Alexandria on whose feast day in 1510 Alfonso
Albuquerque defeated the Muslim army and took possession of the city of
Goa. Hence it is also known as St. Catherine's' Cathedral.
The Cathedral was commissioned by the Portuguese Viceroy, Redondo to be "a
grandiose church worthy of the wealth, power and fame of the Portuguese
who dominated the seas from the Atlantic to the Pacific". The final
edifice is bigger than any of the churches in Portugal itself.
The construction of this imposing edifice began in 1562 during the reign
of King Dom Sebastião (1557-78) and substantially completed by 1619. The
main altars however were not finished until the year 1652. It was
consecrated in 1640. The Cathedral was built for the Dominicans and paid
for by the Royal Treasury out of the proceeds of the sale of the Crown's
property.
The Cathedral stands to the west of the great square called Terreiro de
Sabaio and has its façade turned to the east. Its beautiful courtyard is
approached by a flight of steps. The building is Portuguese-Gothic in
style with a Tuscan exterior and Corinthian interior. The church is 250 ft
in length and 181 ft in breath. The frontispiece stands 115 ft high.
There were originally two towers, one on either side of the façade, but
the one on the southern side collapsed in 1776. The exterior of the
cathedral is notable for its plainness of style built in the Tuscan
tradition. The loss of one bell tower, which was never rebuilt, has given
the building a unique look.
 The
Sé Cathedral has five bells. The existing tower houses a famous bell, one
of the largest in Goa and often referred to as 'Golden Bell' on account of
its rich tone which has been immortalized in a Portuguese poem. The main
altar is dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria, and old paintings on
either side of it depict scenes from her life and martyrdom.
The Cathedral has been built on a raised plinth of laterite, covered over
with lime plaster. There is a long nave, two aisles and a transept. A bell
tower is located to the southern side of the façade. The nave is
barrel-vaulted while the crossing is rib-vaulted. Massive pillars support
the vault in the nave and the choir, while the chapels on either side are
separated by internal defenses. The building is oblong on plan but has a
cruciform layout in the interior.
The main entrance in the façade has Corinthian columns on plinths
supporting a pediment containing an inscription in Latin recording that,
in 1562, in the reign of King Dom Sebastiao, this Cathedral was ordered to
be erected, the Archbishops and the primates being administrators and that
the succeeding kings continued the same at the cost of the Royal Treasury.
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Ruins of Church
of St. Augustine
 This
highly visible landmark, a 46m-high tower served as a belfry and formed
part of the facade of a magnificent Church. One of the most spectacular of
all monuments in Goa, reproduced on innumerable travel brochures and
advertisments is the St Augustine tower in Old Goa.
Out of the more than twenty fabulous churches which once existed in the
old city of Velha Goa, only ten remain today. And of these four are
actually chapels. The churches were located on and between seven hills
around the Velha Goa region.
The Monte Santo (Holy Hill) at Velha Goa was the site for the the
monastery of the Augustinian order, attached to which was the enormous
church of Nossa Senhora da Graca (Our Lady of Grace). The Tower and Church
were built in 1602 by the Augustinian friars who arrived in Goa in 1587.
The tower is one of the four towers of St. Augustine Church that once
stood at the site. initially built of laterite and colossal in size,
almost forty-six metres high, it had four storeys. The Tower was meant to
serve as a belfry and the Church had eight richly adorned chapels and four
altars and a convent with numerous cells attached to it.
The construction of the building began more than 400 years ago and was
finished between the years 1597 to 1602. The name of the designer of this
magnificent piece of construction is not known, but he is thought to have
been Italian.
incidentally, the construction was begun in the same year as the arrival
in Goa of Julio Simao (1565-1641) who was himself influenced by the great
Spanish architect Juan de Herrera (1530-1597). Simao was the chief
architect of the Indian colonies of Portugal having been appointed by
Philip II, ruler of Spain and Portugal between 1580-1598.
 When
it was completed in the 16th century, the grand Nossa Senhora da Graca
Church was recognised as one of the three great Augustinian churches in
the Iberian world, the other two being the Basilica of the Escorial in
Spain, St. Vincente de Fora in Lisbon.
On entering the church, the visitor would have a glimpse of the grand
retable of the high altar, with its large gilt tabernacle sheltered within
an arch, through a screen of arched piers. Vestiges of most of these piers
were visible until recently; they supported a spacious choir which could
have accommodated a large number of Augustinian monks.
The nave of the Church now lies open to the sky, under whose broken arches
locals sometimes gather and talk. Covering the vast nave was a barrel
vault, whose enormous weight unfortunately hastened its collapse.
The church was abandoned in 1835 due to the repressive policies of the
Portuguese government, which resulted in the eviction of many religious
orders from Goa.
The church fell into neglect and the vault collapsed in 1842. The church's
demise began with the collapse of this vault. The body of the church was
soon destroyed, but the facade remained intact.
The tower's huge bell was moved in 1871 to the Church of our Lady of the
Immaculate Conception in Panjim, where it remains and can be seen and
heard today. in 1931, the facade and half the tower fell down, followed by
more sections in 1938 leaving only half the tower that is seen and visited
by thousands of tourists today.
This remnant, the renowned St. Augustine's tower is all that remains of
what was once one of the largest buildings in Goa -- The Augustinian
Monastery.
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