Goa - Church of St. Augustine in Old Goa

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

After doing a detour at Church of  Lady of Rosary we headed off to see the Church of St. Augustine.

The tower from a distance

Ruins

There is no church here, as of today its just the ruins that stand around the broken tower.

Ruins next to the tower

As per history this tower is one of the four towers of St. Augustine Church. The height of the tower was around 46 metres. Around 4 storey high in lay mans term, The tower used to house the church bell. 

The tower

Cells in the premises

The Church which is currently in ruins had four altars and many cells. 

Church Info

This church was built by the Portuguese. It was finished between 1597 to 1602. This church was abandoned in 1835 by the Portuguese when they left Old Goa. The church vault collapsed in 1846. As there was no one to take care of the church, The valuables were either lost or stolen. It finally crumbled and all that is left are these ruins. In 1931 the facade and half of the tower crumbled. 

Church Info

The ruins houses the graves of the dead. Meaning in those days the dead were buried in the church premises only. There were many graves there. Not sure what the writing on the graves meant as it was not in English. 

Graves inside the church premises

Also located these tiles with beautiful patterns  pasted on the walls. When everything has been stolen or removed not sure how this survived. 

Tiles on the walls

Not sure what this is but it is packed in glass. Hoping it is something of importance. Not sure what the write up on the white stone meant. Again it was not in english.

Artifact

We were the only ones here, so we  checked out the ruins in entirety. It's hard to image how the church and the towers around it would have looked like in its glory days. But again due to the neglect of mankind, this is all that remains of it.

Altars in church premises

Another Altar

If this is not taken care off then the coming generations might not even be able to see this.