Civil and Criminal Court

Civil and Criminal Court

Mapusa [Mapuçá], Goa, India

Equipment and Infrastructures

Mapusa’s Civil and Criminal Court is located at the top of a slope in front of the Municipal Lyceum, on the east side of the road linking Mapusa to Pernem and Bicholim. Although the exact date it was built is now known, it is supposedly a contemporary of the lyceum. The perfect entrance alignment of the two buildings seems to indicate that they were conceived and planned together, a process joined later by the Communities Administration building. Its construction can therefore be dated from the mid-1920s to 1936, when photo- graphic records show that it was already built. This is a two-storey rectangular building with the accesses resolved in its central area. The main façade comprises an arcade with rusticated pillars flanked by two hexagonal towers. The main entry is marked by pilasters, over which was once a pediment, now gone. The other elevations have many openings, though more restrained. The use of hexagonal towers on the main façade is an influence from domestic architecture, where there are numerous examples of such features. The building was renovated and modified in the 1940s; it is possible that the pediment was then replaced by the fascia still seen today. On the upper floor the arcades were closed with frames. Regarding the exterior spaces, recent construction of a covered parking lot in front of the Court and of a bus stop impinging on part of the property on the lyceum side destroyed the buildings’ visual and physical relationship. The fact that the road separating the buildings was until a few years ago the busy main road access to the most northern provinces of Goan territory also did not contribute toward maintaining that relationship.

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