Paper short abstract:

A colonial city could hardly survive as exotic transplant of foreign architecture and town-planning, without respecting local geography, and natural and human resources. But it left lasting impact upon its rural suburbs.

Paper long abstract:

Unlike the Portuguese Brazillian experience where barroque monumentality of achitecture could be imposed upon the native lack of power or conscious heritage traditions, it was different in India, including Goa.

The Castillian administrative linkage brought in a visible monumentality in the Portuguese town planning and urban as well as military architecture in Goa since the close of XVI th century, but the Portuguese resources in men and finance failed to support it for long. Natural calamities, trade collapse and war burdens took toll of the city of Goa.

If religious monumentality moved into rural zones of Goa in the second half of the XVIII century , despite increase of financial burdens, it is not town-planners, or architecture experts, but economic historians who can provide an answer. This paper proposes to provide one.