CHURCHES AND CONVENTS OF GOA

• Churches and Convents Of Goa

Churches and convents of Old Goa refers to the name given by the UNESCO to a set of religious monuments located in Goa Velha (or Old Goa), in the state of Goa, India, and which have been declared a World Heritage Site in 1986.Goa was the ancient capital of Portuguese India and Asia and an evangelization center from the sixteenth century. The justifications for the inclusion of religious monuments in Goa in the World Heritage List are the influence of the monuments in the dissemination of Western art forms - the Manueline styles, Mannerist and Baroque - throughout Asia where Catholic missions were established the value of the set of monuments of Goa as an exceptional example that illustrates the work of evangelization and he specific value of presence in the Basilica of Bom Jesus of the tomb of Francisco Xavier, which illustrates a major world event: the influence of the Catholic religion in Asia in the modern era. The city of Old Goa was founded in the fifteenth century by the Sultanate of Muslim rulers of Bijapur as a port on the banks of the Mandovi river. The village was taken in 1510 by Afonso de Albuquerque, the first Portuguese Viceroy of India, with the help privateer Timoja, remaining almost continuously under Portuguese rule until the twentieth century.Jesuits, Franciscans missionaries and other religious orders settled in Goa since the sixteenth century, used it as a center for the spread of Catholicism in India. The settlers were initially tolerant to Hinduism and other religions, but from 1560 the spread of Catholicism was reinforced by the arrival of the Inquisition in Goa, much feared in its time. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the golden age of Goa, which ran a flourishing trade and came to have administrative privileges similar to those of Lisbon. In the first two centuries of the Portuguese presence most of the churches and monasteries were erected that still populate the city, earning the admiration of travelers who passed through Goa. These monuments reflect the cultural exchange between Portuguese and India: while the architectural forms follow the European canon, the internal decoration of altars, altarpieces, paintings and furniture reflect the labour, the work of local artists. This was made possible by the great tradition of Indian artists and sculptors of the Goa region, which made it not necessary to import large-scale labor-artistic work, but as occurred in colonial Brazil. From the late seventeenth century, trade competition with Dutch and British led to the economic decline of Old Goa, at the same time that Brazil has become the most important colony to Portugal. Also, several epidemics ravaged the city and the river Mandovi port became inadequate for the more modern ships. The Viceroy moved to Panjim (New Goa) in 1759, and Old Goa lost the capital status officially in 1843. In the twentieth century, after several years of hostilities and diplomatic negotiations, Indian troops invaded and annexed Goa and the surrounding Portuguese-held pockets to India, ending centuries of Portuguese presence in the sub-continent. The cultural influence, however, continues to this day and it is evident in religious monuments in Goa, declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986.