English
Minor Seminary
Saligão, Goa, India
Religious Architecture
The decision to found a seminary on the high ground of Saligao was made in 1934 on the initiative of the patriarch Teotónio Manuel Vieira de Castro. A public subscription was undertaken the following year to gather funds for its construction. Two plans for this building can be seen in the reception of the seminary, where a boys school now functions. The first was submitted in 1936 by the Mumbai-based firm of the engineer Aloísio L. Colaço, a Margao native, responsible, among other projects, for the plan of the Mumbai Opera. This construction in the neo-Gothic style had three floors and an E arrangement. The foundation stone was blessed on 8 December 1937, although construction only began a year later. The work progressed slowly due to material shortages resulting from the Second World War. In 1942 the patriarch José da Costa Nunes took office in the Archdiocese of Goa. He appealed to the generosity of the Catholic community and, along with support from the Portuguese government, was able to gather enough funds for work on the seminary to continue. The plans were revised by Colaço that same year. The seminary was then given a U-shaped arrangement around a yard. The building now had two storeys and the central body was gone. Neo-Gothic language gave way to an art deco inspired vocabulary. The construction had the same base dimensions as in the first plans, probably because the foundations were already in place. One of the wings ended up not being built for lack of financial resources and the resulting seminary was thus organised approximately in two bodies, forming an L. The building as constructed mostly corresponds to Colaço’s second design, specifically the elevations, which were simplified. These simplifications were most likely introduced by a Public Works official who accompanied the work together with Costa Nunes, who was also responsible for the seminary at the time. From the property’s entryway a huge yard, garden and access are arranged symmetrically with respect to the main body of the seminary, where the main entrance is marked by a projecting volume in the middle. The reception is on the ground floor, along with the chapel and a festival hall. Classrooms, refectory and support areas are located in the second body. Sleeping quarters are on the upper floor. Distribution is via two groups of vertical accesses leading to the distribution galleries inside the complex. The entrance, galleries, vertical accesses and structure mark the main elevation with a simple language. The Saligao Minor Seminary was inaugurated on 6 December 1952 during commemorations of the fourth centennial of the death of Saint Francis Xavier. It began operating in June of the following year. Like the Pilar Missionary Seminary inaugurated during the same period, the Saligao seminary is situated on high ground dominating the landscape. Despite its simple architecture, which reflects financial difficulties at the time, the building is still a Goan architectural landmark due to its scale, placement and symbolic importance. It represents yet another effort by the Church, backed by the Portuguese government, to leave marks in which the end of the Estado da Índia can already be seen. The construction and inauguration of two seminaries, Saligao’s by the Goa Patriarchate and Pilar’s by the Missions of India, also reflects the conflict between Portugal and the Holy See over the Portuguese Padroado in the Orient.