Se Cathedral

The Se Cathedral in old goa is the largest church in India dedicated to Catherine of Alexandria. It is the oldest and most celebrated religious buildings in Goa and also one of the largest churches in Asia.

The Se Cathedral was built to commemorate the victory of the Portugues under Alphonso de Albuquerque over a Muslim army, leading to the capture of the city of Goa in 1510. Since the day of the victory happened to be on the feast of Saint Catherine, the cathedral was dedicated to her.

It was commissioned by Governor George Cabral to be enlarged in 1552 on the remains of an earlier structure. The actual construction began in 1562 under the reign of King Don Sebastiao. The Cathedral was finally completed in 1619 and was consecrated in 1640.

It originally had two towers, but one collapsed in 1776 and was never rebuilt.

Se Cathedral also houses a baptismal font made in 1532 which was used by Saint Francis Xavier the patron saint of Goa, in order to baptize several Goan converts.

St. Augustine Tower

One of the most spectacular of all monuments in Goa, is this highly visible landmark, a 46m-high tower served as a belfry and formed part of the facade of a magnificent Church. The construction of the building began more than 400 years ago and was finished between the years 1597 to 1602. The name of the designer of this magnificent piece of construction is not known, but he is thought to have been Italian.

When it was completed in the 16th century, the grand Nossa Senhora da Graca Church was recognized as one of the three great Augustinian churches in the Iberian world, the other two being the Basilica of the Escorial in Spain, St. Vincente de Fora in Lisbon.

On entering the church, the visitor would have a glimpse of the grand retable of the high altar, with its large gilt tabernacle sheltered within an arch, through a screen of arched piers. Vestiges of most of these piers were visible until recently; they supported a spacious choir which could have accommodated a large number of Augustinian monks.

The nave of the Church now lies open to the sky, under whose broken arches locals sometimes gather and talk. Covering the vast nave was a barrel vault, whose enormous weight unfortunately hastened its collapse.The church fell into neglect and the vault collapsed in 1842. The church's demise began with the collapse of this vault. The body of the church was soon destroyed, but the facade remained intact.

The tower's huge bell was moved in 1871 to the Church of our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Panjim, where it remains and can be seen and heard today. In 1931, the facade and half the tower fell down, followed by more sections in 1938 leaving only half the tower that is seen and visited by thousands of tourists today.This remnant, the renowned St. Augustine's tower is all that remains of what was once one of the largest buildings in Goa -- The Augustinian Monastery.