St Francis Xavier’s restored altar inauguration today
Governor of Goa Lt Gen (Retd) JFR Jacob will inaugurate the restored altar after the completion of restoration work of the Jesuit Saint Francis Xavier in the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa on November 23, in the morning.
It will be then unveiled in a ceremony at the Basilica of Bom Jesus by the Chief Minister of Goa Dr. Wilfred de Souza.
Ajai Shankar, director-general of Archaeological Survey of India, Gaetano Zucconi, ambassador of Italy to India, Dr. Giorgio Bonsanti, director of the Opificio Delle Pietre Dure, Florence and Prof Carlo Buldrini, director of the Italian Cultural Centre will also be present on the occasion.
In the evening, a group of six musicians from Italy, the ‘Ensemble Strumentale Italiano’ shall provide the grand finale to the occasion. They will stage a Baroque music concert at the Kala Academy in Panjim, playing among others, the compositions of Antonio Vivaldi, the great XVII century Italian composed.
Exactly three hundred years since the installation (November 1698-1998), in a finely carved silver casket, lie the mortal remains of Saint Francis Xavier who died in China in 1552.
In the 1600s, St Francis Xavier’s followers gifted a cushion that had belonged to him, the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III de Medici, who, in return, donated to them a beautiful monument as a mausoleum for the saint. This altar was made in Florence by the “Opificio Delle Pietre Dure” under the supervision of the Italian architect Giovambattista Foggini, who also designed four bronze reliefs depicting the life of the saint. It was installed inside the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa in Novenber1698.
The panels of the mausoleum are decorated with mosaics in relief in multi-colored marble – yellow from Siena, Carrara, marble, Arno green, bardiglio chapel, red from France, brocatello from Spain, green Alps and oriental pink granite.
Down the ages, unfortunately, the altar has had to sustain damages due to limited availability of original materials for restoration as well as natural calamities such as an earthquake.
A scientific study of the restoration work that was needed had been carried out in 1996 in collaboration with the Archaeological Survey of India by a team of expert restorers from the very same Opificio Delle Pietre Dure of Florence, now a department of Ministry of Culture and Environmental Heritage of the Government of Italy. Carlos Biliotti, Ms. Bettina, Lucherini, Ms. Sara Giacobini and Ms. Francesca Lotti, members of this team, carried out the actual restoration work over the past six months.
The restoration was done in three phases. In the first phase, at the site itself, absolutely faithful plastic models were made of the architectural and sculpted parts that had to be removed and remade in marble.
The second phase was carried out in Florence where the various varieties of marble and stone were procured and shaped, first by machine and then by hand (carving and inlay work, for example).
The third phase was carried out in Goa, where the new parts made in Florence were checked for size with instruments brought from Italy and then reassembled.
The mausoleum was finally given a complete cleaning, including the parts made of bronze, were some elements having problems of adhesion were fixed to their supports.
The restoration project has been sponsored by Ansaldo International. Guala Closure SpA, Sun-Grace Mafatlal, Teksid SpA and Titanor Components Limited