Goa’s heritage basilica goes in for repairs

The recklessness of Castro's restoration strategy in the 1950s proved to be a bane

Panaji: Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio de Oliveira Salazar’s penchant for aggressively pushing nationalistic ideology, especially in the colonies, isn’t really paying off in the long run for the State’s most important Catholic place of worship: the Basilica of Bom Jesus.

The 17th century church, which is a part of the Old Goa Church complex, once the seat of Portuguese power in South Asia, is crumbling thanks to an almost ‘Tughlaq-like’ decision taken in nationalist bombast by the Portuguese dictator in the early 1950s. The decision involved ‘restoring’ heritage structures across Portugal and its colonies and to remould them superficially as ancient monuments representing the Iberian nation’s past glory.

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Master Portuguese restorer Baltazar da Silva Castro, who was assigned the mission to ‘restore’ the Basilica in the 1950s, directed his workers to chip away at the plaster of the massive heritage structure in order to make it appear ancient.

“…a new cross was built on the back of the basilica; the major change in the religious complex was the removal of the lime plaster from the exterior facades of the basilica, leaving the stone (laterite) exposed to weathering effects and, at the same time, drastically changing its image,” says Joaquim Rodrigues dos Santos, a Portuguese scholar in his research paper ‘On The Trail of Baltazar Castro, A Portuguese Restorer in India’.

The basilica incidentally hosts the mortal relics of 16th century Spanish saint St. Francis Xavier, who is also considered the patron saint of Goa. Seventy years later, the recklessness of Castro’s restoration strategy, has proved to be a bane for the Catholic clergy serving at the Church complex, who believe the Basilica walls may be close to caving in and urgently need repairs as well as a coat of plaster from the outside. Some of the stones embedded in the outer wall seem to crumble at mere touch, says Fr. Patricio Fernandes, the Basilica’s Rector.

“If you visit the Basilica and take a close look at the structure now, the stone has been irreversibly damaged by weathering, in some places there is a loss of detail and ornamentation or it has been badly disfigured,” Fernandes said.