EnglishSaint Lawrence's Church
Agaçaim, Goa, India
Religious Architecture
Saint Lawrence’s Church is located atop a fortified hill overlooking the Zuari River estuary, with its main façade facing west. In the past it dominated one of Goa’s most important locations: Agassaim village, the arrival and departure point for boats transporting people and goods between Tiswadi and Salcette on the Agassaim-Cortalim route, one of the main arteries in the Catholic territory ruled by the Portuguese crown. The Zuari’s banks have since changed substantially due to silting, and there are road and rail bridges linking both sides of the river. The church’s visibility is somewhat diminished due to disordered growth of the settlement along the road behind it. The yard (now as in the past?) descends from the church to the road lower down. The original church was built by the Jesuits in 1565. The existing building has a single tile-roofed nave and vaulted chapel, with a high choir borne by Tuscan columns made of stone from the north, a false transept, north tower set back slightly from the main façade, three-arched exterior galilee added in recent years and a sharp-pointing gable with round oculus. The church is adorned with incised mouldings on the arches, pillars and coffers of the chancel’s barrel vault. This is characteristic of the transition between the 16th and 17th centuries and is of the same type found in other churches on the islands. A chapel dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament opens on the southern side and dates to the early 18th century. The type is Goan par excellence: groin vault with penetrations, polygonal lateral windows and sides marked by semicircular niches.