Old Goa Church Tours

Last year I worked as a guide in Goa, and meanwhile I'm trying to work in St. Petersburg for a ticket to Goa. But the guide went to work a friend, and I want to help him wrote on the Old Goa educational program, spread, maybe someone will come in handy. 


Goa is territorially the smallest state of India and the fourth most populated. Goa is located on the west coast of India, is washed by the Arabian Sea, borders on the north with the state of Maharashtra, in the east and south-with Karnataka and is separated from them by the mountain range Western Ghats. The capital of Goa is Panaji (Panjim). 

The largest city is Vasco da Gama, next to it is the only Goan airport - Dabolim. Goa is divided by estuaries of the Mandovi and Zuari rivers into 2 parts - North and South Goa.

Officially, the history of Goa is counted from the 3rd century BC. - then Goa was part of the Buddhist empire of Maurya. Later this territory was governed by various Hindu dynasties - Satawahana, Chalukya, Silhara, Kadamba, etc. At the beginning of the 14th century, Goa fell on 60 years under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate, in 1370 it was reconquered for 100 years by the Vijayanagara Empire (modern Hampi), and then again Muslims. Since the emergence of Islam, the 7th century AD, militant Muslims began to attack North India, and the south, for the most part, remained Hindu. At the time of the arrival of the Portuguese, Goa was part of the Bijapur Sultanate, governed by the dynasty Adil Shahov. The Portuguese fleet commanded by General Afonso de Albuquerque repelled Goa from Sultan Yusuf Adil Shah in 1510, and 450 years the territory of Goa was part of the Portuguese crown.

After gaining independence in India in 1947, the Portuguese began to cheat, and in 1961 during the operation "Vijay" (Victory), the Indian army came to Goa, drove the Portuguese out, and Goa was declared the union territory of India. Then there was a long debate about how to proceed with Goa - to join Maharashtra, Karnataka, or make it a separate state. On the one hand, Goa is very small - only 100 km from north to south and 60 km from west to east, on the other - 450 years of Portuguese domination - this is not a ram sneezed. In 1987, Goa received the status of a separate state. 


Old Goa (English Old Goa, port Goa Velha or Goa Dourada - Golden Goa).

How to get there. For Panaji you need to turn on Pond, after 10 km on the left there will be a pointer to Old Goa. Landmark - at the entrance to the city there will be a circle with a monument to Gandhi. From there to go straight, there will be parking for transport). 

Ruling during the arrival of the Portuguese, the Bijapur Sultan Yusuf Adil Shah made Old Goa his second capital. During this period the city was an important center of trade and shipbuilding.

Old Goa was the capital from 1510 to 1847. In the heyday of its population exceeded the population of London and Lisbon. By the end of the 17th century, because of the persistent epidemics of cholera, malaria and other unpleasant tropical diseases, the Portuguese began to think about moving the capital to another place, gradually dismantled houses for building materials and migrated 10 km to the west, to the present capital of Panaji, Goa, on the banks of the Mandovi River. Now only a few churches remind of the former greatness of Golden Goa. 

The Catholic temples and cathedrals of Old Goa are included in the Unesco World Heritage Fund. The churches are constantly restored, in some of them services are held.

Old Goa is known throughout the Catholic world because it is associated with the missionary work of the patron of Goa, Francis Xavier, the closest associate of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Order of the Jesuits (Society of Jesus). (In Russian, however, it is precisely Xavierius, the Latin transcription, and not Francis Xavier, or Francisco Javier). 
Ignatius Loyola came up with the phrase "The end justifies the means," and in general the Jesuit order diligently promoted the activities of the Holy Inquisition. Do not confuse the bloodthirsty St. Francis Xavier with a soft and kind-hearted St. Francis of Assisi, who lived in the 13th century, preached to the birds, since no one else wanted to listen, he founded the order of the Franciscans and adhered to renunciation of worldly goods.

The imperishable relics of the saint are buried in the basilica of Bom Jesus (the basilica of the Good Jesus, or of Jesus the Compassionate, Bom Jesus Basilica). The basilica is in the heart of old Goa, where buses stop. The construction of the basilica lasted 11 years, from 1594 to 1605. For comparison, the Cathedral of St. Catherine built about 90 years. I think such an atypical efficiency for the Hindus is connected with the beneficial influence of the Inquisition. Basilica, as, indeed, most of the Goan churches, is built of laterite, the facade is made of granite and combines elements of the Ionian, Doric and Corinthian architectural orders.

The plans of the Goan churches are often cross-shaped. In the altar part there is the main altar and the zaaltar image, the radios. Zaaltarny image is decorated with carvings or paintings. On the basilica of the basilica Ignatius Loyola is depicted in full view, looking at the Holy Trinity. 

Almost all churches of the Portuguese built on the ground destroyed by them Hindu temples.

In 1542, at the age of 35, Francis Xavier arrived in Goa with the mission of spreading Christianity in the east. After living in Goa for about a year and turning thousands of pagans and heretics into true faith with fire and sword, he went on with his mega mission. In 1552 he died on one of the Chinese islands. The servant accompanying him buried his body in a coffin with lime and buried him. Later his remains were exhumed and it turned out that neither decay nor lime harmed them. After 2 years they were transported to Goa, in order to rest in consecrated land. In the fascinating brochure about the life of the saint, which I found on the altar in the basilica, the procedure for the examination of the relics for the enumeration of Fr. Xavery to the saints. 2 Jesuit brothers in the presence of the medical lab governed the Portuguese viceroy in Goa, that in the chest of Francis there is a hole. A curious Jesuit jabbed a finger there, and scarlet blood flowed from the hole. All rejoiced, they found it a miracle of God, and they thought that it would be nice to canonize Francis. Also in the brochure was written the address on which the interested were promised more detailed information about the guru of St. Francis - Jesus Christ.

Following the incomprehensible Catholic predilection for the dismemberment, the right hand, both shoulder blades and internal organs were removed from the corpse. These parts of the body were distributed between the Catholic cathedrals of Southeast Asia. Now the bones are in the basilica, in a glass box between the altar and the burial vault with imperishable relics. Remains in a silver coffin are placed in a three-tiered tomb made of marble and jasper (it is to the right of the altar). 

In 1622, Francis Xavier was still ranked as a saint.

The relics of the saint are shown to believers once in 10 years, in December, on the anniversary of his death. The last time it was in 2004 and Old Goa visited more than a million pilgrims. You can see the corpse only through the cover of the crystal coffin. They say that this is due to the fact that some devout parishioner in a fit of religious ecstasy could not restrain herself and took a toe off Franciscus. But even without that, the power looks rather unattractive, their brutal photos hang on the walls of the basilica. 

On the second floor of the basilica is a museum, there are funny pictures about the life of Fr.K., old wooden statues of saints and modern paintings of some Indian torchkov.

As a rule, everyone likes basil, but one tourist surprised me. He informed me that in the early nineties he traveled with a bus tour of Europe, and so - compared to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the basilica of Bom Jesus is the utmost hu-nya. 

Across the street from the basilica stands the Cathedral of Se, or the Cathedral of Saint Catherine (Se Cathedral) - the largest Christian church in Southeast Asia. 

The cathedral is dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria. This is due to the fact that the troops of Albuquerque captured Goa on December 25, 1510, the day of St. Catherine. Zaaltarny image, radios, decorated with paintings of life and martyrdom of the saint.

The building is built in the Portuguese-Gothic style, with a Tuscan exterior and Corinthian interior. The cathedral began to be built under the Portuguese vice-king Redondo, who planned to build "a grandiose church reflecting the wealth, power and glory of the Portuguese, who own all the seas from the Atlantic to the Pacific." 

The huge square in front of the cathedral, Terreiro de Sabayo, was once intended for carrying out an auto-da-fe (if one does not know, this translates as an act of faith, a solemn ceremony of announcing the judgments of the Inquisition court). The beginning of the auto-deaf was proclaimed by the Golden Bell, located in the only surviving tower of the cathedral (before there were 2, but 1 collapsed).

In the third right of the chapel there is a miraculous growing cross. Say, a century so in 17 a certain devout shepherd vystrugal cross, and he appeared himself our Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone was surprised at this miracle-sign and the Dominican monks decided to build a special church on this occasion for such a shrine. Have constructed, look - and the cross in the door does not get through. Because while the church was being built, it increased in size to the Golgotha ​​cross. I had to cut the doors wider. Believers filed a cross and cut off pieces from it, and he grew and grew. And to this day it is growing. In the 18th century, all monastic orders were banned in Goa, the church came to desolation and the cross was transferred to the cathedral of Xie. It is believed that if you touch the cross and make a wish before the cross, then it will certainly turn out, therefore it causes genuine interest among tourists. One curious elderly lady asked me who to contact when making a wish - to Jesus or to St. Catherine of Alexandria. I was taken aback.

Behind the cathedral, in the former house of the archbishop, is a gallery of modern Christian art. According to the Goan standards this means a lot of the same portraits of the smiling and rosy-cheeked Our Lord, performed in the style of "My Friend Jesus" and "Catholicism is cool".

Behind the gallery is a slightly dilapidated, but very glorious church of St. Francis of Assisi, built by Franciscan brethren in 1619. The cathedral is in the process of restoration, the walls are decorated with scenes from the life of Francis of Assisi, and the floor is laid out with tombstones with the family coats of arms of the noble Portuguese. Part of the paintings ruthless Indians painted over with pink paint, so it was elegant. The cathedral is adjoined by a monastery, converted into an archaeological museum. In the museum there are many sculptures from Hindu temples found during excavations, as well as a portrait gallery of Portuguese vice-kings and governors.

From the center of the city you can see the ruins of a high tower (46m). The tower that served as a bell tower is the only surviving fragment of the church facade on the territory of the huge destroyed St. Augustine's Church. These picturesque ruins - a great place to wander in peace and quiet, and then sit down and smoke. Since there is almost nothing to restore there, UNESCO decided to simply conserve everything. Behind the facade is a huge altar room, the floor of which is again laid out with headstones, and on the walls are the famous glazed ceramic tiles azulejos, the secret of which the Portuguese took from the Spaniards, and those in turn from the Moors. On the territory of the monastery, they constantly dig something. All excavated in an artistic disorder is laid out in front of the facade.

When I was last there, on the walls hung a touching story about the search for the relics of the patron saint of Georgia, Queen Ketevan. In the 17th century Ketevan went on a pilgrimage, but in Goa it was tidied up by the Lord, and she was buried somewhere on the territory of the monastery. Naturally, the place of burial gouges-Hindus lost. In 2004, with the goal of finding relics in Goa, a Georgian delegation headed by the Prime Minister arrived, did not find anything, because in Goa and without seeking relics, there is something to entertain, and left home. Power is still being searched.

If you return to the circle with the monument to Gandhi, from it will be the road to the island of Divar, it sails with a ferry (ask if cho, ferry to Divar Island). If on the way to turn on a narrow road to the right, you will get to the Church of Our Lady of the Mount. The church itself is not very interesting, and as a rule it is closed, but from the mountain there is a beautiful panorama of Old Goa, a view of the Mandovi River, and it's very cool to meet the sunset. 

Further along the road to Divar Island on the right is the Church of St. Cajetan. It is noteworthy that its design was licked at the Roman Cathedral of St. Peter. Nearby there are beautiful carved basalt gates - the only thing left of the palace is Adil Shah.

On the island of Divar there is a mountain with the church of Our Lady of Mercy, a Portuguese cemetery and a small Ganesha temple. In principle, nothing special, another f * cking church, but with a beautiful view from the mountain and a fun ride on the ferry. Book Old Goa Church Tour