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Historic Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa can collapse ‘at any moment’, must be plastered soon: Rector
Panaji: The historic Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa is in imminent danger of collapsing “at any moment” unless its exposed laterite walls are plastered, its rector Fr Patricio Fernandes said on Sunday, “The walls are completely drenched,” he said of the world heritage site.
“There is water coming through the walls, and inside too. It’s a bad situation. I see the damage going to happen. If we don’t stand united, it’s going to fall someday. We shouldn’t let this happen. It’s one of our prized Churches. Architecturally, it’s a beauty.”
The Basilica holds a singular place in the history of Goan Catholicism, as it is home to the relics of St Francis Xavier, and draws lakhs of visitors every year.
At Mass on Sunday, Fernandes explained to the faithful the history of the Basilica. He said the walls were plastered from 1605, when it was inaugurated, till 1950.
“In 1950, the Portuguese government led by Salazar wanted to make their structures look very ancient,” he said.
“In Portugal it was ok, since the stone is quite different there, but when they did it in Goa, it damaged the Basilica very much. They were supposed to unplaster all Churches, but after they did this, they stopped.”
He said that ten years later, in 1960, they were ordered to re-plaster it. Then Liberation happened in 1961, and the Portuguese went away.
“The Indian government inherited it this way, so they didn’t do anything about it for 60 years. I have never seen these walls becoming wet so badly.” He added that engineers and architects he has consulted have strongly advised getting it plastered.
“Initially I wasn’t convinced, because I was born in 1956 and so I didn’t see the Basilica in its plastered form,” he said. “I thought the Church was always like this. Now when I look at it… we have to plaster it.”
He urged the faithful to see this for themselves.
“I would like you to look around,” he said. “The walls are simply going off. If you touch the walls, you can feel powder from the stone. This year, the situation was so bad. I made a noise when the roof was not done, and the ASI said no water would seep into the walls for the next 25 years. Ten days after the rains came, all the walls were wet,” he said.
Fernandes told TOI that the Basilica is in “grave danger”. “I was drawing the attention of the people to what’s happening,” he said.
It was the Portuguese restorer Baltazar Castro, commissioned by the Estado da India to co-ordinate restorations to its monuments, who had the lime plaster removed from the exterior facades of the Basilica. This not only altered its image, but exposed the laterite stone to the vagaries of nature.
In 2016, architect Joaquim Santos from the University of Lisbon warned that the condition of the Basilica would worsen if it was not plastered and whitewashed.
Santos had spoken of a document he had come across, where a Portuguese architect who arrived in Goa in 1961 after Castro left stated that deplastering the monument was a huge mistake, and requested Portuguese authorities to have it replastered.
Fr Fernandes said the Basilica could meet the same fate as St Roque Church at Tolecanto, Velim, whose facade came crashing down three months ago due to water seepage.