ABSTRACT
A 1596 view of the Portuguese colony of Goa depicts, amidst the houses and vice-regal buildings, a number of religious sites: the cathedral, parish churches, religious houses and chapels. This was an urban landscape that had been transformed by the Portuguese, who captured Goa in 1510. As early as 1542, the Jesuit Francis Xavier reported on his arrival to the newly established Society of Jesus in Rome that:
Goa is a city pleasant to see, entirely inhabited by Christians. It has a monastery with many friars of St Francis, a very fine cathedral with many canons, and many other churches. There is reason for giving many thanks to God our Lord seeing how the name of Christ is flourishing so well in such distant lands and among so many infidels.1
