English
City Council
Mapusa [Mapuçá], Goa, India
Equipment and Infrastructures
The Bardez City Council is located on a slope where streets fork in the centre of Mapusa city, and has always contained the Municipal Library as well. Construction began in 1850 on the site of the previous City Council and Agrarian Chamber of Bardez. In 1878 José Nicolau de Fonseca called it the city’s best building. This is a massive two-storey construction with a modest image, where the bays mark the rhythm. It has a rectangular footprint with annexes on the east and south sides. The central entrance functions as the axis of symmetry for both the floor plan and the façade. In the early 1940s it was subject to renovation work in the interior and the back was rebuilt. The main façade was also modified, though it is not known when. On the ground floor, the parapets of the two windows flanking the entrance were raised; on the upper floor the full-length windows that had grilles were given narrow concrete balconies with canopies above. This is the oldest city council in Goan territory. Both it and the old Islands City Council in Panaji were, among existing municipal structures, those most associated to constructions of this type in Portugal. The Bardez building stands out from its counterparts for the language, the clear influence of Portuguese domestic architecture and its urban placement, as it organises no space, nor is it located next to an open urban area, square or garden. But its presence at the street’s point of inflection marks the image from street level, making it the most important axis of the city’s expansion.