A Missionary Enterprise: Old Goa’s Christian Religious Architecture (16th to 18th Centuries)

18 November 2022

The churches, convents and colleges of Old Goa are among the most spectacular Christian religious structures built outside Europe during the early modern period. Although most buildings have disappeared, the ones that remain give us a glimpse of the monumental scale and artistic sophistication of the city’s Christian religious architecture.

In this presentation, the speaker discusses how the clergy and the various religious orders appropriated key sites and developed extensive properties within the city, shaping its urban layout. Focusing on buildings that have disappeared or are in ruins, the speaker shows how they had a strong impact on other churches within the city and beyond, generating architectural genealogies. Looking at the abandonment, ruin and dismantling process of Old Goa from the mid-seventeenth century onward, the speaker demonstrates that the religious orders’ activities were part of the cause for this process, but also the main reason why the city was never completely deserted.

View the video below.