This installment presents some of the surviving aesthetic treasures of Panjim. The man responsible for parlaying what was once a swamp into one of the world’s most beautiful cities was the Portuguese Viceroy D. Manoel Francisco de Portugal e Castro. It was during his tenure, 1827-1835, that the marshland was reclaimed and the city’s layout...
Ensconced in an orchard in the Goan village of Advalpal, an old and precious temple of Hanuman lies in a state of criminal neglect. Physical decay of the structure has taken hold, inside and out. This corrosion of the land’s cultural soul is a corollary to the ecocide underway in Goa. Inside the shrine an...
When Afonso de Albuquerque first tried to claim Goa in 1510, his men encountered fierce resistance from Adil Shah’s forces from their vantage point atop a hillock in Old Goa. Stunned by the intensity of the opposition Albuquerque was forced to retreat. But he was to return in a few months and dislodge Adil Shah....
