I broke free from Anjuna Beach for a while today & paid a visit to the Goan state capital of Panjim. It was a 4-hour excursion that was a decade & three visits to Goa in the making – ashamedly this is my third visit to Goa stretching back to 2002 & I had yet to venture beyond the sand or beach-front cafes of three of its beaches. Panjim helped to right that wrong.
The oh-so Portuguese façade of the Church Of Our Lady Of The Immaculate Conception, Panjim (
), Goa, India. September 28th 2012.
LP Hyperbole
I went to Panjim, a short bus ride from Anjuna, with the express intentions of sampling what Lonely Planet describes as the ‘atmospheric warrens of narrow, blue-and-white tiled streets lined with whitewashed churches, shuttered windows & overhanging balconies left behind by the Portuguese, former colonists in Goa – they left in 1961 when the state was annexed by India. It all sounded very photogenic, except it wasn’t.
I explored but yet failed to discover any atmospheric warrens or blue-and-white tiled streets lined with whitewashed churches, aesthetic delights that may or may not have been here in years gone past. I did see a few shuttered windows & overhanging balconies alright, but not too many & all of which had seen much better days. My favourite capture of the day was the above picture of the façade of the city centrepiece, its main church, the Church Of Our Lady Of The Immaculate Conception. In fact, the church is all I seem to have photographed on my excursion away from the Anjuna coast. Panjim just wasn’t up to much I’m afraid.
Panjim was the first port of call for voyages from Lisbon. Without fail newly arrived sailors would visit the Church Of Our Lady Of The Immaculate Conception to give thanks for the safe crossing (assuming they made it, of course). With its general unkempt appearance & musty, low-light interior it felt every bit as old as it actually is – the church was consecrated in 1541. I tried to capture a sense of that antiquity in my pictures but I failed. Inside the Church Of Our Lady Of The Immaculate Conception. Panjim, Goa, India. September 28th 2012.
The Inside a section of the Church Of Our Lady Of The Immaculate Conception, Panjim, Goa, India. September 28th 2012.
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