EnglishSaint Anne's Church
Bodiem, Goa, India
Religious Architecture
The Church of Saint Anne in Bodiem is the smallest of the churches with domed façades built in Bardez from the mid-18th century to the early 19th century, its size making it more of a chapel than a church. It was raised to parish church status in 1946. It was founded in 1801 as an affiliate of Tivim and subject to “re-edification” work in 1892-93, when that parish was disbanded. As usual in Goan literature on such matters and in the plaques placed in churches (and in Saint Anne’s), we do not know how to interpret terms such as “re-edification”. But one of the plaques at Saint Anne’s attributes the church’s plan to Father Leopoldo Francisco da Rocha, parish priest from 1885 to 1895. The ornamental vocabulary of the main façade and interior is quite similar to that found in the Church of Moira, which we can date to the early 19th century. The single nave with wooden ceiling and shell niches housing windows is also characteristic of that period. The chancel roof, with a groin vault and penetrations, seems to be a revivalist exercise characteristic of the late 19th century. The church is located on a privileged site facing west, isolated in front of a long stretch of flood plains and branches of water. The village is located to the east, up the slope behind the church.