| THE
CHURCH SQUARE WALK
This walk allows you to share the experience
of living around a monumental building of gigantic
religious, spiritual and physical proportions.
Take your time looking at trees, houses, streetlines
and a unique street life.
To the right, as you enter the Church Square,
lies the town comunidade building. It has a large
hall on the upper floor and chops below. Save
the visit to the beautiful Alvares House for later.
Instead, take a trip down memory lane and begin
walking on your left. Stand back, leaning against
the railing of the Holy Spirit Church to admire
the first house on your left. Moulded doorways
and an intricately fashioned railing elevate this
Goan house into a real traffic stopper. This is
a typical half-storied house, set on a high plinth
with stairs leading up to a neatly placed balcao.
Notice how the massive roof of this house reaches
a high pitch. This is probably because here was
not enough space for a large house with a sprawling
roof on a plot this size and the owners have compensated
by pitching the roof to an impressive mass.
Make a note of the moulded doorway and floral
patterns on the columns. It might be interesting
to know that Goan houses compensated for simple
doorways by decorating doorheads. The reason for
having rather simple doors was that doors in the
Goa of the past were almost always kept open during
the day! This meant that if you had an elaborately
carved door, it was less likely to be seen and
appreciated. An elaborately decorated doorhead,
on the other hand, could be admired even from
the street! Perforations on the patterns over
the windows added to the general decorative elements
and also allowed light and air to come in. Now
look towards your right and admire the great Cross
set on a stone pedestal in the middle of the Church
Square. Dr. Carmo Azavedo, Goa historian, says
that the name Margao actually comes from mal ganv
or main village. It could also, he says, come
from Mahar ganv or the village of Mahars. The
Church has been erected on the site of an ancient
Hindu temple named the Damodar Mahaji Temple.
The original structure was pulled down and the
first Mass celebrated here in 1565. Invading Muslims
from Bijapur burned down that church and another
structure replaced it in 1589. The new church
was refurbished in 1604. This church, “all
vaulted and very bright and pleasant, the biggest
and most beautiful of Salcete and capable of competing
materially with the good ones of Europe”
is said to have been decorated and refurbished
over ten years from 1665-75. The architect was
a Jesuit named Francisco Aranha, a man responsible
for the building of several churches in Salcete
who died as a martyr in Cuncolini. The Church
has a beautiful Christian art treasure, a monstrance
from Toledo, a gift from Castille, as also several
exquisite pieces of silver and gold chalices,
ciboria, etc. as well as embroidered vestments
in typical Indo-Portuguese styles.
Margao could also be the colonised version of
a temple town named Mudgaon, a corruption of the
Sanskrit Mathagram or temple town. Even today,
locals refer to the town by its old name. It is
quite possible to conclude that the Cross has
been erected at the site of the ancient tulsi
vrindavan that symbolically served the temple.
The Church is surrounded by several houses which
exist in a harmonious cluster. The one or two
modern interventions that have been allowed, do
not take away from the general charm of this historic
precinct. Take a look at the Holy Spirit Nursing
Home and its unusually slim cast iron railings
on the upper floor. Larlson Traders by the side
of the church has a beautiful timber awning over
the roof on the balcao. Walk past the rather nondescript
cluster, past Birbal the astrologer’s house
on the right and head straight up to the gorgeous
house named SANA. Admire the basket-handle design
on the railings of this house, creatively crafted
tracery over the doors and windows and its exquisitely
crafted turned-timber stairway in cyma recta.
A high-pitched roof the balcao supports a finial
in clay. Instead of the proverbial rooter, here
the finial is in the form of a pigeon, perhaps
in tribute to Goa’s changing urban landscape.
This is the time to slow down your walking pace.
Admire the cast iron railings and stucco mouldings
over doorways on the house next to SANA.
Now look at Correia House with its extraordinary
decorative elements in stone and stucco plaster.
Take your time to observe and appreciate this
house. Floral medallions decorate the railings
and the fluted columns that support the balcao
roof have been picked out in gray, yellow and
white. Decorative eaves shelter the house from
the harsh noonday sun while ornamented brackets
support the roof. This is quite a special house
and would be able to hold its own amidst the 6000
odd heritage properties in the state. Turn the
corner towards your left to see one of the largest
and most impressive houses in Margao. This is
the house that was once known as the house with
seven gables. Today, only three of those imposing
roofs remain but the house has lost little of
its original splendour. Now look at the Fernandes
House next door, also called The Heritage Hall,
before you cross this busy street and step into
the pride and joy of the city. You are now facing
the West. The Church of the Holy Spirit School
are to your right. The houses to your left were
once the homes of Brahmins in the service of the
temple complex. Take a long and leisurely look
at the Vidya Vikas Academy (Annexe) Pre-Primary
Section and also House No. 28, Agostinho Vincente
Lourenco Road. This is a spectacular house located
next to the last house on the left as the Church
disappears from sight. Now instead of going up
to the Presentation Convent, which is a sad bundle
of Indian Art Deco and kitsch, take a right turn
and end this walk at the gorgeous Alvares House,
a fine example of 18th century Goan architecture.
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