“One of the most celebrated heritage places of Goa, Old Goa, could be home for the ruins of pre-Portuguese era,” said Sidh Losa Mendiratta, architect from Oporto University and doctoral candidate of Coimbra University. He recently hosted a talk on the topic, ‘The Undoing of Old Goa (seventeenth century to the present),’ at Fundação Oriente, Panaji.
“There could be elements of temples or mosques buried in the Old Goa area as this kind of excavation was never carried out. In my opinion there should be a balance between development and heritage as Old Goa has tourism potential. Some of the churches there could be used for functions instead of creating new structures. Also there is a 100 meter buffer zone surrounding each national monument and there are more than 50 legal cases concerning encroachments,” informed Sidh Losa.
While speaking about the history of Old Goa he added that there was a systematic demolition of architecture right from 1760 to 1890 by church and state authorities. “This was a singular phenomenon within architectural history” added Sidh.
It was due to the fact that these structures had become difficult to maintain and they were turning into ruins. “Building of the new capital in Panjim also contributed towards systematic dismantling of buildings. People had started vacating the place due to the decay of commerce, lack of drinking water and also bad sewage system. There was also a legend that an elephant fell in the Karmali lagoon” elaborated Sidh.
He further informed that by the start of twentieth century bigger religious celebrations had started taking place in Old Goa. He also mentioned the Portuguese architect, Baltazar de Castro, who removed the lime plaster from Basilica of Bom Jesus and dismantled and reconstructed the St Catherine chapel and Viceroy’s Arch. The Gracias Committee was established in 1959 to transform Old Goa into a tourism and religious centre and to showcase important churches” added Sidh.
Elaborating on the role of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) that took charge of monuments in Goa after Liberation, he mentioned that they took on a lot of responsibility. “The ASI initially had a conventional approach towards Old Goa. The symbolic elements of the Gracias plan of the Portuguese times were maintained,” said Sidh.
Sidh informed that the main excavation, the site of Our Lady of Grace Church (a part of St Augustine Monastery), was carried out by ASI in the year 1989 and the second phase started in 2004.
He concluded by saying that the ASI should carry out more excavations in order to find ruins and elements of pre-Portuguese era.
