English
Church of Akbar
Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Religious Architecture
Agra’s oldest Catholic church, locally known as the Church of Akbar, is situated about 2 km north of the city fort’s walls. Its foundation dates to 1598, when the third Jesuit mission arrived at the Mughal court. According to Gauvin Bailey, the Church of Akbar was demolished twice, meaning three different buildings have occupied the same site. This assertion is hard to confirm, although the church has definitely been subject to more or less radical changes, the last in the early 19th century. The establishment of the original church was followed by an enlargement 16 years later, which resulted in an entirely vaulted structure with a nave and chancel and also two side altars; it would have had a bell tower and cross in the forecourt. The church was damaged in a 1616 fire and replaced by a more modest building. In 1632 Emperor Shah Jehan began to limit the freedom of Catholic missionaries in Agra. The prisoners from the fall of Hugli, about 4,000 Catholics, among them many Portuguese, arrived in Agra in early 1633 and many died there. In this context, the Jesuits were forced to demolish their church in Agra, although they were allowed to save the construction materials to build a private house. A crypto-church thus arose on the previous structure’s site in 1635. It was able to hide the items used for religious services and the wall furnishings, thus concealing its liturgical function. The Mughal court returned to its previous tolerance and the crypto- church benefited from work carried out in 1675 and was successively enlarged. However, it was badly damaged during the 1758 sack of Agra by Persian forces. Restoration work began a decade after the attack, financed by two German generals at the service of the Maratha kingdom. The essential structure seen today in Agra is the result of the restoration completed in 1722 and 19th century interventions. The building’s plan includes a broad transept with a more recent appearance. Adjoining the frontispiece, whose cymatium bears the date 1722, is a narthex of austere neo-classical design. This element, besides hiding and disfiguring the main façade, endows the religious building with a strange appearance. The dome over the transept’s axis may date to the 17th century and bears decorative relief motifs. Around the dome’s base is a terrace accessed by two narrow stairways which accompany the side walls of the apse. Doubly interesting is the nave’s side entrance on the Epistle side, which reveals a unique combination of artistic elements of Mughal origin integrated in a composition of curious Mannerist design. Inside the church this combination occurs again; there are various decorative motifs and niches sculpted in the walls of clear Oriental taste, while the rhythmic main structuring is provided by pilasters with Corinthian capitals. The triumphal arch may be one of the interior’s oldest architectural elements. In the chancel, poor due to the absence of retables, the pilasters are repeated. It is difficult to examine this religious structure without a study that explains the main changes wrought by successive interventions over the course of its turbulent history.