The Church of St. Peter at Banguenim, Goa
-Close to the site of the College of St. Thomas to the west, there is the parish church of St. Peter.
It is very old, and appears to have been built about the year 1542 or 1543, at the expense of the public treasury, by Portuguese architects, as we learn from an official document.
Some think it to have been built by orders of the Archbishop Dom Fr. Aleixo de Menezes, but this opinion may be shown to be erroneous by the following clause in the regulations framed in 1565 by the Viceroy, Dom Antão de Noronha-« The priest who serves as curate of St. Peter’s house, which is in Banguenim, and which is also a parish, will receive a yearly salary of £1-13-4.”
From this it is clear that the church could not have been built by the Archbishop, who commenced to govern the diocese in 1595.
Besides, the question of precedence which arose between this church and that of St. Thomas, erected, as already stated, in 1560, corroborates the above documentary evidence. The church now wears an antique appearance and has nothing remarkable about it.
It is small in size and in one of its altars is seen an image of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, to whom it is dedicated.
On the floor are seen four or five inscriptions almost effaced, that at the entrance bearing the name of João Rodrigues Machado. The population of the parish which, during its most flourishing period, must have been very considerable, was reduced in 1720 to 1,997 souls and in 1775 to 1,794.
This number was still further reduced in 1827 to 860, in 1857 to 504, and has now dwindled to 261.
Palace of the Archbishops. Proceeding a little further we approach the splendid palace of the Archbishops, situated at Panelim, which formed, as stated above, a part of the parish of St. Peter. It stands on the slope of a hill to the south of the main road, and is about five and a half miles distant from Pangim, and a quarter of a mile from the old city.
It enjoys a picturesque and widely extended view, and is approached by an excellent stone staircase. Cottineau, who was a guest there in 1827 of the Archbishop S. Galdino, says that it looks from outside like a double-storied building, but has only one floor above the level of the ground in the shape of a square cloister in the finest style, of vast dimensions and in an excellent condition.
At the entrance was a chamber adorned with the life-size portraits of all the Archbishops and opening into the audience-hall, which was tastefully furnished.
Here were seen the arms of the Prelate, the portrait of the reigning
King of Portugal, geographical charts, and a likeness of Leo XII.
The same traveller speaks also of the chapel and the library of the palace, which Dr. Wilson says contained about 2,000 volumes. Its gardens extended up to the road which led to the city. In this palace the Archbishops maintained to some extent the style and splendour to which they had been accustomed in the old palace in the city, and when they stirred out, although they did not, as formerly, take in their train large number of attendants, they still preserved a certain degree of state.
“When the Archbishop goes out,” says the Abbé, ” on festivals and for public purposes, he is always preceded by a young clergyman, bearing a large silver cross.
Like the Governor, he has only two sorts of conveyances–a palki after the Bombay fashion, and a boat suitably painted and ornamented. In the first case, the clergyman bearing the cross goes in an open palhi before him, and in the second the cross is fixed to the prow of the boat.
The Archbishops transferred their residence to this palace in 1695, on account of the epidemic which raged in the city, but when the disease spread to the suburbs where this palace stood, it was abandoned, and the successors of the Archbishop S. Galdino resided at Santa Ignez or Pangim. Being thus neglected, it naturally began to decay, and one of its wings fell in course of time.
Its principal halls are still standing, but they are in so tottering a condition that nobody can safely approach them. A few of its apartments are, however, in a tolerably good condition, and since 1866, under the orders of the Home Government, they have been used as office rooms of the Camara Pontificia (the Pontifical Chamber) and the Tribunal da Relação Ecclesiastica (the Ecclesiastical Court). The committee appointed in 1870 to examine the buildings of the old city found that these apartments were ill-fitted for these purposes, and recommended the removal of these establishments to the House of Bom Jesus.