Igreja do Espírito Santo e Convento de São Francisco (Goa)
The Igreja do Espírito Santo e Convento de São Francisco , German Church of the Holy Spirit and Monastery of Saint Francis , is a former Franciscan monastery with an attached monastery church in honor of Francis of Assisi in the Indian city of Velha Goa . The complex, built in its current form in 1661, is part of the UNESCO World Heritage ensemble “ Churches and Monasteries of Goa ” (see World Heritage in India ) and is now used, among other things, as a museum for the Archaeological Survey of India .
The monastery has long been considered the headquarters of the Franciscan order in East Asia .
history
Foundation of the first Franciscan monastery in East Asia
The Monastery of St. Francis was founded in 1518 by Brother António Louro, who arrived in Goa in the company of eight Franciscan brothers. King Manuel I had explicitly instructed the colonial governor Lopo Soares de Albergaria to support the Franciscan in his missionary work and the establishment of a monastery in the Portuguese colony. Albergaria donated some vacant buildings to Louro that originally belonged to the late João Machado. The first facility of the monastery is said to have been modest and only consisted of a chapel, three altars, an organ and a small bell tower. There is also said to have been a sacristy, some monastery cells and a small garden.
First construction
In a letter to the Portuguese royal family, Brother António Louro complained that he had not received sufficient support from the colonial governor Albergaria and asked for permission to build a monastery using the stones from the destroyed Hindu temple nearby To use Divar Island . This request was granted, construction work on the new building began in 1520 and ended in 1521 (according to other sources, construction work continued well into the 1520s). The monastery, as one of the first and therefore most important buildings of Velha Goa, was in a central location in the old capital not far from the Mandovi river , adjacent to the bishop's residence and the Goa cathedral .
The architects of the building are largely unknown. António Nunes Perreira writes, referring to the missionary António Silva Rego, that the architects Leonardo Vaz , royal builder in Portuguese India 1525-27, João de la Ponte as well as João Fernandes and Bastiam (Sebastião) Pires participated in the construction of the monastery and the monastery church should have been.
Conversion to today's appearance
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In 1661 the monastery and the monastery church were massively rebuilt, only the Manueline entrance portal is still preserved from the time before. Sources also report that the entire complex was said to have been rebuilt, but the floor plan and the entrance door of the church contradict this thesis, as they still correspond exactly to the dimensions of the previous building. The dimensions of the side chapels are also the same and there is only a small bell tower next to the sacristy, which is characteristic of the church architecture of the 14th and 15th centuries. However, apart from minor modifications, the system has not changed significantly since the renovation.
With the ban on religious orders in 1835, the Portuguese state closed the monastery and church, reopening it for general services in 1876 by the colonial governor João Tavares de Almeida .
In 1986 UNESCO named the monastery and the monastery church as part of the “Monasteries and Churches of Goa” ensemble as a World Heritage Site . In the Portuguese monument database Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico , which also includes monuments of former Portuguese colonies, the cathedral is registered with the number 11434. The cathedral is registered with the number N-GA-4 in the database of the Archaeological Survey of India .
Today the monastery serves as the museum of the Archaeological Survey of India in Velha Goa.
architecture
outer appearance
The monastery and the adjoining monastery church are in the Baroque style - only the Manueline entrance portal has been preserved from the previous building. This entrance, in dark stone, is verschwungen three times in typical Manueline manner and with armillary spheres , the symbol of I. King Manuel provided. The facade is long and four stories high, with two octagonal towers.
There is a large granite cross in front of the entrance portal.
inner space
The interior of the monastery church consists of only one nave with six side chapels and a narrow transept, decorated with stucco and paintings. On the side of the epistle are the chapels and altars of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception ( Imaculada Conceição ), Virgin of Sorrows ( Nossa Senhora das Dores ) and the stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi ( Chagas de São Francisco de Assis ). On the gospel side are the chapels of the Virgin of Miracles ( Nossa Senhora dos Milagres ), Saint Elizabeth of Portugal ( Santa Isabel de Portugal ) and a portiuncula .
As in many Goian churches, the floor is provided with numerous inscriptions and coats of arms. The apse is decorated with paintings of the life of Francis of Assisi , a large, gilded altarpiece (from 1670) shows Jesus Christ embracing St. Francis. Behind the reredos is a tabernacle with statues of the four evangelists.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Many sources give the church and the monastery the same name. The Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian website claims that this is not correct and that the church is correctly named "Igreja do Espírito Santo" (Church of the Holy Spirit)
- ↑ a b c d António Nunes Pereira: Convento de São Francisco e Igreja do Espírito Santo. In: Património de Influência Portuguesa (HPIP). Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, July 26, 2012, accessed November 1, 2017 (Portuguese).
- ↑ a b c d e Sofia Diniz: Igreja e convento de São Francisco / Igreja do Espírito Santo. In: Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico. 2002, accessed November 1, 2017 (Portuguese).
Coordinates: 15 ° 30 ′ 11.9 ″ N , 73 ° 54 ′ 41 ″ E