This church is the oldest one around, built by Alfonso d'Albuquerque as soon as he captured Goa from a Muslim Sultan of Bijapur, in 1510. Yes, he might be a very pious man, but at the same time he was ruthless when dealing with his enemies. Three days before Christmas 1510, he wrote to his King Manuel in Lisbon:
"Then I burnt the city and put everyone to the sword and for four days men shed blood continuously. No matter where we found them, we did not spare the life of a single Muslim: we filled the mosques with them and set them on fire...We found that 6,000 Muslim souls, male and female, were dead, and many of their foot-soldiers and archers had died. It was a very great deed, Sire, well fought and well accomplished. Apart from Goa being so great and important a place, until then no revenge had been taken for the treachery and wickedness of the Muslims towards Your Highness and your people."
[Source: Richard Hall, "Empires of the Monsoon", 1998]
Needless to say, he really hated Muslims due to a lifetime of fighting them in North Africa before venturing to India and the Far East. I'm sure he was not any kinder when he conquered Melaka a year later.
The pic shows the back of the church which faces the Mandovi River, flowing beyond the wooded area on the other side of the building. It's no longer in use, all boarded up, and when I took a walk around it as the sun was setting, it was eeriely quiet...and I realised I was all alone. :-)
