Ruins of
Church of St. Augustine
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.
