Lost in the gorgeous melee of mammoth architectural delights at Old Goa is the St. Catherine’s Chapel, which is known as the first ever Christian ecclesiastical building in the region. While it has fallen off the tourist radar because of its proximity to the much, much larger and grander Basilica of Bom Jesus and the Se Cathedral, the beautiful, cosy chapel has tremendous historical significance.
Official records suggest that the chapel was built by the first Portuguese governor Afonso de Albuquerque in the early 1500s in honour of St. Catherine, after he emerged victorious in his military campaign against Bijapur’s Adil Shah, whose rule included the region of modern-day Goa.
What makes the chapel, which was later modified with time, a visual treat are the elegant towers which flank it and a mica-shelled mirror.
Such was the significance of the chapel for the Portuguese, as one of their earliest milestones of their Asian conquest that a subsequent Portuguese governor ordered that a slab be inscribed alongside with the following…
“Here on this spot and by door entered the Governor Afonso de Albuquerque reconquered this city from the Moors (Muslims were referred to as moors) on the day dedicated to St. Catherine in the year 1510 in whose honour and memory the Governor Jorge Cabral raised this house in the year 1550."
St. Catherine’s chapel
Old Goa
