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Paper short abstract:

Under Portuguese rule, Old Goa's urban fabric expanded for about one century, until the time when the city's economic stagnation and decline became manifestly visible along its cityscape. Focusing on the history of the built landscape, I will describe and map process, from 1510 to ca. 1615.

Paper long abstract:

Reflecting the trajectory of the "Estado Índia", Old Goa, its capital between 1530 and 1843, had a meteoric growth and a slow and agonising decline. After a long period of ruin and abandonment, Old Goa is today growing again, and new urbanized areas will soon replace the palm tree groves and jungle overgrowth that covers the archaeological structures and artefacts dating back to the Early Modern period. Only a handful of religious buildings and sites will be left standing, barely hinting to a disappeared city. Once this re-urbanization process come full-circle, the architectural and urban history of Old Goa will enter a new chapter, and its Indo-Portuguese layer will cease to be a concern for the archaeologist, remaining solely a matter for the historian.

This paper addresses the period of Old Goa's history under Portuguese rule from its conquest in 1510 to ca. 1615, the time when the city's economic stagnation and decline became manifestly visible along its cityscape and urban fabric. Focusing on the history of the built landscape, I will make use of archaeological and architectural studies produced during the last hundred years or so, as well as primary and secondary sources important to the city's history.