Church of St. Francis of Assisi
Baroque-fronted church over a floor paved with carved sixteenth-century Portuguese tombstones.
Location
About this audio guide
The guide to the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Goa opens on the second of February fifteen twenty, when Governor Diogo Lopes de Sequeira laid the foundation stone on land taken from a local chief, with eight Franciscan friars newly arrived from Portugal. It follows the building through an unusually long silence, eighty-two years between construction and its eventual consecration by a bishop, and through two later demolitions and rebuilds that kept only the old doorway intact. You'll hear what that gap says about how slowly Portuguese rule and the Catholic faith actually settled in here. Listen for the gilded crucifix above the altar before you notice what's underfoot.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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