Place · Portuguese colonial quarter · India
Fontainhas, Panaji
The historic Latin Quarter of Panaji, Goa, 2 kilometres from the city centre — a cluster of 300-plus Portuguese colonial houses in Mediterranean colours (ochre, blue, white) along narrow streets with red-tiled roofs, overhanging balconies and whitewashed verandahs. Fontainhas developed in the 18-19th centuries as the residential quarter of Portuguese administrators and Catholic Goan professionals after the Portuguese shifted their capital from Old Goa to Panjim (now Panaji) in 1843 due to the Old Goa malaria epidemics. The 1818 Chapel of St Sebastian (with the Rubens-attributed 'Christ with Thorns' crucifix moved from the Palace of the Inquisition), the Goa Latin Quarter restoration project (2001 UNESCO) and the Fontainhas Arts Festival each February anchor its contemporary heritage identity. UNESCO tentative list since 2012.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 15.493, 73.828
Connections (4)
- Architectural modelSt Francis Church, Kochi
Fontainhas in Panaji is Indo-Portuguese domestic architecture rather than ecclesiastical — ochre and blue houses, azulejo tiles, balcões facing the street — and it survives because the quarter was never grand enough for anyone to rebuild. Kochi's Fort area holds the same kind of thing in a different key, Portuguese and then Dutch merchant houses adapted to Kerala's rain. Between them they show what four centuries of European settlement actually left behind once the cathedrals are set aside.
- Life routeDayanand Bandodkar
Dayanand Bandodkar was Chief Minister of Goa, Daman and Diu from 1963 until his death in 1973, governing from the state secretariat at Panaji — the historic Latin Quarter capital where he led the campaign that fixed Goa's separate statehood against the 1967 Opinion Poll merger with Maharashtra.
- Site withinOur Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church, Panjim
The Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception church stands on the hill above the Fontainhas quarter of Panaji; the twin towers are the single most recognisable image of the city, visible from across the Mandovi at Reis Magos.
- Site withinJama Masjid, Panaji
The Jama Masjid is in Panaji's Mala quarter, a short walk from the Latin Quarter of Fontainhas; both grew up together after the Portuguese capital moved from Old Goa to Panjim in 1843.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “Fontainhas”. Charles Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire; the Historical Archives of Goa; UNESCO’s Churches and Convents of Goa file.
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