Source- File:Latin Quarter of Panjim in Goa, India 0212.jpg – Wikimedia Commons
Goa, famous for its amazing yet crowded beaches and infamous for its cheap booze and racy parties. Of course, who doesn’t love a little sinfully stimulating fun but the beauty remains in the simplicity of Goa’s serene terrain and natural landscapes. And the Goan landscape is ornamented with the dispersed houses that give a sense of the colonial era Goa. Portuguese designers didn’t have much space to work about in the streets of Portugal at that time. The empty fields and humble hills, however, gave them a large canvas to portray their menagerie of culture and architecture.
The Indo-Portuguese culture started taking hold in India and especially in Goa after the Portuguese settlers moved from Ceylon (modern day Sri Lanka) towards the East and West Coasts of India. Most of their influence over culture and architecture is seen in the states of Tamil Nadu and Goa. They are quite famous for the old Portuguese houses and small apartment complexes. In Goa, they still attract a lot of investors and preservation enthusiasts who want to restore or retain the beauty that these Portuguese houses hold. From old whitewashed churches to the colour palate of the Fontainhas in Panjim, Portugal brought with it a medley of cultural sermons which made Goa what it is today. However, understanding the beauty in these complex architectural pieces, is uncomplicated.
Portuguese Town Planning
Let’s talk first about the narrow streets lined with towering Portuguese villas in areas like Assagaon and Benaulim. The main reason behind these parallel narrow roads is the Portuguese style of town planning. If you see the road mapping of Goan towns, you’ll find a main road connecting one town to another, while the streets with settlements and houses are connected perpendicular to this main road. On the other side of these housing streets, or vaddos, you can find another straight road going through, with large Portuguese bungalows lining it up. Now the main road which connects towns stays on the lower levels, the vaddos move up to the second connecting street, which houses grand Portuguese villas which are built on a higher plinth. This town planning design is the result of defence tactics of Portugal called castrensian. So, that the the aristocracy of the town is at the uppermost level, watching over their lands and belongings and right underneath are the citizens who can use the streets to go to their adjoining chapels and grottos, while the principle main street connects them to the rest of Goa.
Portuguese Villas of Goa
The alluring grandiose of the Portuguese bungalows and villas in Goa brings many a vagabond home. A large number of international tourists who want to retire from life have invested in these villas to live a serene and susegad life in the midlands of Goa. Portuguese houses have a special feel to them with their ornamental facades in the front to the grand pillars on porches, their symmetrical designs also absorb in them a memory from the renaissance period. Especially the heritage churches of Goa like Bom Jesus’ Basilica in Old Goa and the Church of Immaculate Conception in Panaji are windows to the fast-paced development of the past.
Source: File:Afonso Guest House, 173, Fontainhas – 19th-20th century (4275516387).jpg – Wikimedia Commons
Portuguese houses in Goa tell a story of cultural synergy through its Portuguese Stuccos on window shutters that are adorned with Muslim designs consisting flowers and climber branches. Since, Portugal also had a Muslim influence in its earlier years, it still does have the designs embedded in its architectural ornamentations.
Source: Period Portuguese era furniture at Panjim Inn | Period furni… | Flickr
There are some outstanding features that are consistent in all Goan Portuguese houses. You might be familiar with roosters on the gates and roofs of houses, it is the cultural change that came with the Portuguese. The rooster is the national bird of Portugal and is considered lucky. Another cultural synergy that you will find is the lion on the gates of the same houses which have a rooster on top. They come from the Kadamba dynasty of the Western Ghats and represent courage and strength on part of the owner of the house. The Portuguese accepted this idea and put lion statues on their gateways. The rarest structure you’ll find on old Portuguese houses is the soldier on the gate. This was the conveyance to people that a member of the family is in the military. It used to represent the military respect that the family commands, which was to be considered before taking judicial action on the family.
The beauty of symmetrical embellishments and China clay adorned windows combined with meaningful symbolism makes Old Portuguese architecture the backbone of Goan landscape. It enlivens the spaces and gives all the feel of a gothic baroque era in the modern world.