portuguese Asia heritage Oceania around the world - ces.uc.ptC1sia.excerpt.pdf · The Convention...

AsiaOceania

portuguese heritagearound the worldarchitecture and urbanism

AsiaOceania

portuguese heritagearound the worldarchitecture and urbanism

scientific coordinationJosé Mattosodeputy scientific coordination

Mafalda Soares da Cunha

project coordination

Maria Fernanda Matias

authorsAlice Santiago FariaAna Marques GuedesAna TostõesAndré TeixeiraAntónio Nunes PereiraHelder CaritaEdmundo AlvesFernando BagulhoManuel LobatoNuno Grancho

Paulo Varela GomesPedro DiasRita CarvalhoSidh MendirattaSofia DinizVítor RodriguesVictor MestreWalter RossaZoltán Biedermann

editorial coordination

Walter Rossa

Edition

Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian

Production and organisation

InternatIonal department

João pedro Garciamaria Fernanda matias

sEcrEtariat

Carlos luísHenrique FernandesIsabel Gouveia

translation

John Bradford Cherryreginald Brown

ProoF rEading

Jonathan Weightman

dEsign

tVm designers

cartograPhy

Walter rossa (coordinator)Sidh losa mendirattaVera mónica Gaspar domingues

satEllitE imagEs

Digital Globe

Printing

textype

Print run 1000 copiesisBn 978-989-95758-8-2lEgal dEPosit 324 383/11

© Calouste Gulbenkian Foundationlisbon, 2011

PhotograPhErs

alice Santiago Fariaantónio Cunhaantónio nunes pereiraarquivo GERTiL-UTL/FAarquivo Histórico Ultramarino (AHU )arquivo manuel Vicentearquivo BBB – Bombaim Before the British – UC/DARQBiblioteca nacional de portugalDAGAdavid Kowaldiogo Burnayd’Sousa & paulemile mariniFabrizio CroceFilipe JorgeFundação Calouste Gulbenkian (fcg)Helder CaritaJoão ochôa piresJoaquim Santosluís Filipe Thomazmanuel lobatomanuel rodrigues paivamaria manuel Bandeiramichael teaguemiguel de noronha de paiva Couceiromónica reisnuno Granchopaulo Varela Gomespedro Cabral Gonçalvesrita Carvalhorui ochôaSidh mendirattaVictor mestreWalter rossaZoltán Biedermann

covEr: Sea Bastion or panikotha, diu, India photo by Joaquim Santos

Plan de la Ville de Macao et de Ses Environs Aux Portugais, 1781, lafite de Brassier, Bibliothèque nationale de France, paris.

i N D e x

Foreword 6

Emílio Rui Vilar

Introduction 10

José Mattoso

General overview: what’s what in this book 20

walter rossa

província do norte | north India 63

Goa 171

Southern India | Sri lanka 335

Bengal | Southeast asia | moluccas 405

macao | nagasaki 465

General Bibliography 526

abbreviations 538

Glossary 540

General Index 546

Foreword

foreword · 7

PRESERVING THE HISTORICAL HERITAGE of portuguese origin around the world has long been

one of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s most constant concerns.

In fact, in 1958, two years after its creation, the Foundation asked Charles Boxer and Car-

los de azevedo to travel to present-day Kenya (at the time still a British protectorate) in order

to join with local experts in analysing the state of preservation of Fort Jesus, in mombasa.

Following their visit, the Foundation completely financed the work for the restoration of that

ancient portuguese fort, whose construction dates back to 1593. at the time, the project was

further complemented by the creation of a museum inside the walls of the fort, designed to

exhibit the objects found during the archaeological excavations – portuguese and Chinese

pieces, as well as pieces originating from other countries, all bearing witness to the trading rela-

tionships that have always encouraged circulation and contact between cultures.

Since that first intervention, and over the course of several decades, the Foundation

has participated directly or indirectly in the preservation of the historical, architectural, artis-

tic and documentary heritage of portuguese origin, scattered across four continents.

The netherlands and malta, in europe; morocco, Benin and Kenya, in africa; Brazil and Uru-

guay, in South america; Iran, India, Bangladesh, Thailand and malaysia, in asia, are exam-

ples of countries where, in one way or another, the results of the Foundation’s activity in this

area are clearly visible.

after several decades spent gaining experience in the restoration of heritage (for a long

time it was the only portuguese institution to promote and finance this kind of activity abroad),

the Foundation has now taken responsibility for the project entitled “portuguese Heritage

around the World: architecture and Urbanism”, in which it will play a pioneering role in draw-

ing up a systematic inventory of this vast architectural legacy outside europe.

almost six centuries were to elapse from the very beginning of the portuguese overseas

expansion, at the start of the fifteenth century, when portugal first made its presence felt in

africa, to the end of the twentieth century, when the administration of macau was officially

passed on to the Chinese authorities. during that long period, the portuguese spread their lan-

guage and culture worldwide, influencing others and themselves being influenced in a variety

of different ways.

This interaction resulted in the creation of a built heritage of quite different types, in

africa, South america and asia.

It is particularly significant to note that a considerable portion of this legacy, amounting

to over twenty sites and monuments in fifteen countries in three continents, has been included

by UNESCO in its World Heritage list.

The Foundation invited a prominent scholar and an internationally recognised author-

ity on portuguese history, professor José mattoso, to head the project “portuguese Heritage

around the World: architecture and Urbanism”. I wish to express my gratitude for his most

valuable contribution to this initiative, in which he has displayed all of his well-known

qualities and scholarly rigour.

a special word of thanks is also due to professor mafalda Soares da Cunha, professor José

mattoso’s assistant in this initiative, as well as to the team of coordinators – professor renata

malcher araujo, professor Filipe Themudo Barata, professor José manuel Fernandes and

professor Walter rossa – for the work that they have done and for the way in which they have

supervised the cooperation provided by the dozens of researchers invited to participate in the

three volumes of this project.

The Foundation hopes that this work can be a useful and valuable reference tool for

people and institutions seeking to contribute, through both research and action, to the pre-

servation of a common heritage.

lisbon, 2010

Emílio Rui VilarPresident of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

8 · portuguese heritage around the world: architecture and urbanism

Introduction

The Convention for the Protection of World Cultural Heritage, signed in 1972 by a large num-

ber of countries, was an initiative promoted by UNESCO and had a decisive influence on the con-

ceptions of the material values that such heritage symbolises and preserves, as well as of the res-

ponsibilities underlying its ownership, use and fruition. after that date, UNESCO began to draw

up a list of the cultural monuments and sites considered to form part of the world heritage and

whose protection it has sought to promote in a variety of ways. The list has gradually grown lar-

ger and is still growing. In view of its practical effects, UNESCO decided to broaden the concept of

World Heritage to include the most unusual natural landscapes, which therefore required spe-

cial attention. later on, its concern with the protection of heritage spread even further to include

immaterial cultural expressions, promoting the drafting of a recommendation for the safeguar-

ding of traditional culture and folklore (1999) and then obtaining the signature of several coun-

tries to a Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003).

meanwhile, in 2001, it had succeeded in obtaining the signature of 185 of the 193 mem-

ber States to a Universal declaration on Cultural diversity, which established the principle that

Humanity must protect all existing cultures, including minority cultures or cultures under threat

of extinction. The agreement of such a large number of countries means that there is a univer-

sal consensus about the loss that society will suffer, not only as a result of the disappearance of

any culture, but also as a result of cultural uniformity, and therefore about the need to do

everything possible to guard against either of these eventualities.

The doctrine underlying all of these actions taken by UNESCO, which is specifically enshrin-

ed in this declaration, is the principle that “as a source of exchange, innovation and creativity

cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature”. It must therefore

be protected as common world heritage. The obvious fact of cultural diversity must be matched

by the promotion of cultural pluralism, conducive to cultural exchange and to the flourishing

of creative capacities that sustain public life. Thus, it considers the “meeting of cultures” to be a

positive phenomenon. In fact, the undeniable and always effective interaction among the cul-

tures that have been developed by the different peoples of the world has been one of the main

factors affecting their evolution over the centuries. Such contacts have taken place in many diffe-

rent ways. While they may have led, historically speaking, to the disappearance of many cultu-

res, they have also helped to consolidate others and encouraged their adaptation to the new

conditions of modern-day life. The meeting of cultures – conditioned in the past by the com-

partmentalisation of territories, the isolation of civilisations and the difficulties of communica-

tion – has made it easier to highlight the phenomena of cultural identity and internal cohesion,

and to reject the cultures of others, but it has rarely been able to prevent their evolution.

The contacts with africa and the orient, initiated by the portuguese in the 15th and 16th

centuries, led to a change in the previously predominant system of territorial compartmentali-

introduction · 11


sation, not only because they resulted in new meetings of cultures, but also because they gave

rise to a gradual increase in the West’s dominance over the rest of the globe. This, in turn, led to

a constant transfer of material goods that was to the benefit of europe and, from the mid-19th

century onwards, to the consequent development and concentration of capitalism in this same

region and in north america, along with the West’s technological domination of the whole world.

The inequalities and injustices that may have arisen from this must not, however, be allowed to

afford a negative interpretation to the ambivalent concept of the “meeting of cultures”, or to be

seen as a reason for introducing protective measures that are based on an artificial isolation. In

fact, the cultural isolation that prevailed until the 16th century did not prevent the exchange of

influences. In some cases, such exchanges took place at the level of whole continents – such as

the spread of Buddhism, for example. The West also witnessed similar phenomena. For instance,

the acceptance of the Greek intellectual and artistic culture by the roman world, or of the Slav-

ic culture by the Byzantine world, or of aristotelian philosophy by mediaeval european univer-

sities through the influence of the arabs. other less comprehensive examples of such processes

are constantly being studied by specialists, such as the possible influence of the songs of trou-

badours as a source of inspiration for mozarab carjas (poetic compositions) or the immense

contribution that the scientific knowledge of the arab world made to the development of science

in mediaeval europe. Yet we might also recall contacts that have had negative effects, such as

the violence that has been generated by religious intolerance, the genocides caused by ethnic

rivalries, the inferior status afforded to defeated peoples and their submission to situations of

unbearable slavery. It is impossible to deny either the benefits or the harm caused by these facts,

which are typical of the meeting of cultures. The conflicts that have arisen from this meeting of

cultures means that its study has become a sensitive matter; it is a question that must be appro-

ached directly and non-judgementally, in an impartial manner and not attributing the respon-

sibilities for past actions to the world’s currently existing peoples. This chapter of history, which

is so important for our knowledge of humankind, must be studied in such a way that it can

help us to avoid similar mistakes to those that were made previously in the name of destructive

intolerance.

In fact, one of the main principles to be taken into account is that of avoiding value judge-

ments about past facts, which is also a rule for historical research in general. The failure to do this

has been prejudicial to the studies made of the meeting of cultures initiated by the portuguese in

the 15th and 16th centuries. The fact that this is considered as the starting point for european

colonial imperialism – which, in the 19th century, involved the economic, political and cultural

subjugation of the peoples of asia, america and africa – has caused it to be shrouded in the same

negative judgment that became widespread in the middle of the last century in support of anti-

-colonial movements, and which motivated, for instance, several negative international reactions

during the celebrations of the Five Hundredth anniversary of the portuguese discoveries in 1998,

at a time when nothing remained from the so-called “portuguese Colonial empire”. In fact, the

asian and african pro-independence movements of the mid-20th century generally adopted anti-

-Western political ideologies. The recent conflicts that have taken place in the middle east have

exacerbated the prejudice that results from a lack of knowledge about other cultures.

But the evidence of their devastating consequences has also led to the first hopeful steps towards

dialogue. It is increasingly clear that the objective knowledge of other cultures is of the utmost

importance for ensuring peaceful coexistence between peoples.

Following a period when public opinion was dominated by the idea of anti-colonialism,

even in the former colonising countries themselves, the attitude of those responsible for cultural

institutions gradually began to undergo a subtle change, becoming influenced by their common

interest in the traces that had been left by Western imperialism of its presence in various coun-

tries outside europe. It was found that the contacts that had taken place between peoples had

often given rise to original experiences, new architectural forms, new decorative patterns, new lit-

erary themes, more expressive linguistic changes and more effective technical inventions. all of

this was to be explained sometimes by the cultural creativity of the colonising countries and some-

times by the cultural enrichment of the countries under their domination, through the formation

there of educated elites. It even gave rise to more fertile contacts between them and the develop-

ment of multilateral exchanges. There was a gradual emergence of research institutes and study

centres that welcomed research into these themes, and later of others that chose it as the specific

aim of their activities. The post-colonial tension that had existed between these countries gradu-

ally gave way to a less exclusive understanding of the meeting of cultures, with greater care being

taken in preserving the signs of the sharing of values that had taken place in the course of this vast

encounter and in studying the phenomena that this had given rise to from the late middle ages

onwards. one of the examples of such a change of attitude was the creation in 1998 of the network

of the International Scientific Committee of ICOMOS (International Council on monuments and

Sites) and, within this, of the Committee on Shared Colonial Heritage. Since its creation, this Com-

mittee has highlighted the risks to which the products of colonial heritage are exposed (many of

which are highly significant), as well as the interest that should be shown in them both by the gov-

ernments of the countries that became independent and by their former colonisers. It has also

drawn attention to the need to join forces in order to preserve, study and give due value to the

traces of a vast legacy, which illustrate some of the most innovative aspects of world culture.

It is therefore necessary to avoid any confusion of epochs and situations and to make sure

that we do not project onto the past phenomena that belong to the present. The study of the

meeting of cultures must not allow itself to be influenced by particular forms of interaction or

ethnic conflicts that derive from the present, the effects of which go beyond the mere confron-

tation of ideas and social practices. This is what happens, for example, with the formation of eth-

nic communities in developed countries, living in the midst of the large masses of non-euro-

pean immigrants to be found there. The conflicts that are exacerbated by the fact that

communities of rival cultures live side by side with one another have given rise to studies and

projects inspired by the idea of multiculturalism – some supporting it, others condemning it.

and, in the opposite sense, they have also led to a fresh outbreak of racist practices and ideolo-

gies. nonetheless, the meeting of cultures must not depend on the consideration of situations

of conflict, whose solution is in fact largely dependent on political reasons.

on the other hand, respect for minority cultures and the strategies required for their pro-

tection must similarly not be confused with the utopian creation of a museum filled with archaic

phenomena. The “memory” that can and must be created of extinct cultures, or ones that are

under threat of extinction, should be as objective as possible. We must not promote forms that

introduction · 13


result in their being artificially frozen, but instead we must stimulate the development of contacts

that are beneficial, constructive and innovative. Just like living organisms, cultures can only sur-

vive through a constant process of renewal and through their consequent adaptation to the new

conditions of life. In order for this to happen, it is necessary to preserve cultural diversity, which

is precisely the principle that UNESCO sought to defend through its declaration of 2001.

This is the context within which we should understand the contribution that the Calouste

Gulbenkian Foundation has attempted to make towards the study of the meeting of cultures and,

consequently, of cultural diversity, by promoting this inventory of the architectural and urbanis-

tic vestiges of the portuguese heritage in the non-european world. This project, whose results are

presented here, is part of a much larger series of activities for the material recovery of buildings

and monuments all around the world, including the fort of príncipe da Beira in rondónia (Bra-

zil), the house of nacarelo in Colónia de Sacramento (Uruguay), the fortress of arzila (morocco),

the portuguese cathedral of Safi (morocco), the fort of São João Baptista de ajudá (Benin), Fort

Jesus in mombasa (Kenya), the fort of Kilwa (tanzania), the fortresses of ormuz and Qeshm (Iran),

the church of the rosary in dacca (Bangladesh), the portuguese factory of ayutthaya (Thailand)

or the church of Saint paul in malacca (malaysia), in addition to other interventions, designed to

preserve other kinds of cultural heritage and involving the building of museums, such as those in

Velha Goa and Cochin, or the promotion of the inventorying and classification of archive docu-

ments (also in Cochin). However, because of their repercussions, these actions, which were deci-

ded on a case by case basis, have suggested the need for a future assessment of the relative impor-

tance of the buildings in question, in order to justify the priority that is to be given in the case of

possible new interventions, bearing in mind the group of monuments to which they belong.

It is important to know the full extent and range of these traces of the portuguese pre-

sence, and to identify the most important ones among them, in order to better protect them from

degradation or possible disfigurement. although we are only studying one particular area – that

of tangible heritage – resulting from the meeting between the portuguese culture and those of

asia, america and africa, the conclusions of its study can be linked to the research being under-

taken into analogous phenomena in other areas (for example, language, religion, food and clo-

thing), making it possible for us to compare results and have a fuller and better understanding

of the dynamics of cultural creation and its social functions. The choice of a national criterion

for the definition of an area of analysis (i.e., in this case, the monuments and sites of portuguese

origin) is not therefore the result of any particular claim to be investigating hypothetical natio-

nal past glories, as would probably have been the case if this project had been undertaken prior

to 1974. In fact, the authors of this inventory are convinced that, in global terms, the traces of

this meeting of cultures no longer belong to just one country: they belong to the whole of Huma-

nity because they bear witness to cultural diversity and human creativity. The peoples that reac-

ted to that same meeting of cultures attributed both a meaning and a function to the signs that

were invented at that time, whether they were inspired by the desire to imitate or assimilate

foreign forms or just simply expressed the rejection of these.

The criterion that the sites and monuments must be of portuguese origin helps to define

and explain the process that led to the development of other non-european cultural forms. In order

to achieve that goal, a complete survey needed to be made, not only of the instances of pure impor-

tation, but also of hybrid cases. This aspect is particularly important in the case of Brazil, which

witnessed the development of a style of architecture and sculpture that did not simply copy por-

tuguese models. The buildings that they produced gradually gained greater and greater autonomy,

until they reached the point where they obtained an identity of their own. If there is a Brazilian art

nowadays, we must remember how it emerged. The appreciation of its values requires us to unders-

tand and reconstitute the process of transformation that gave rise to it. The same applies to reli-

gious architecture, Indo-portuguese decorative arts, or the military architecture developed by the

portuguese in what are now Islamic territories, or even, to a certain extent, to the attempts at moder-

nism that were produced in angola or mozambique and the town planning solutions presented

by the architects of the estado novo in their experiments to establish a “white regime” on african

soil. In all of these examples – some in a more obvious way, others in a more rigid manner – there

were exchanges, attempts, experiments and adaptations. Sometimes the portuguese (or european)

model was faithfully reproduced, whether stylised or not, whereas on other occasions bold expe-

riments were made, some of which unfortunately have not survived into the present.

The definition of an area of study based on the national criterion must also not be allow-

ed to afford special privilege simply to famous monuments or official initiatives. Without for-

getting the particular ideology that inspired many of them, and which implied a direct state-

ment of superiority, we must also remember the contribution made by the anonymous mass of

immigrants who sought, in their exile, a means of subsistence or a possible improvement in their

living conditions. nor must we attempt to conceal the various practices involved in man’s exploi-

tation of his fellow man (such as slavery, for example) and their influence on the creation of

signs of survival under such adverse conditions. The meeting of cultures, in which the portu-

guese played a major role, is a history of light and darkness, which should not seek to make apo-

logies for certain buildings, whether on religious, ethnic, or political grounds. a clear example

of the application of this criterion in our work is the inclusion in the inventory of a monument

such as the fort of São João Baptista de ajudá, which was one of the main trading posts for slave

labour established on the african continent. Its symbolic meaning far outweighs its aesthetic

value. The same can be said of the prison of tarrafal in Cape Verde.

The survey of the tangible remains of the meeting of cultures therefore represents an

important contribution not only for reconstructing the process that depended on it, but also for

assessing its consequences for the present time. In other words, it is of great importance both

for our understanding of the history of those encounters or non-encounters and for our under-

standing of the national cultures that were brought into being as a result of them. This survey

must be as systematic as possible, i.e. it must be complete and capable of categorisation. Com-

plete in the sense that it provides a list of all those cases in which there is evidence of an effec-

tive or probable portuguese influence, whether this be a dominant or even a secondary one.

Capable of categorisation in the sense that it records all those cases in which this influence can

be noted, in such a way as to allow us to identify or organise coherent groups of buildings and

monuments, and thereby place them into specific categories, which are indispensable condi-

tions for their correct and proper assessment.

Consequently, this collection is not intended to amount to simply drawing up lists for the

classification of sites and monuments as world heritage items, or, at a national level, to prepa-

introduction · 15


ring a similar record of “national monuments” to be entrusted to the safekeeping of the portu-

guese Institute for the protection of archaeological and architectural Heritage (IGESPAR), or any

such similar organisation, under the various pre-defined categories. The aim of this inventory

is to create an object of study, a corpus, composed of a significant group of sites and monuments

for the context in which its various elements were created. It will show the different signs that

characterise them, either in their uniqueness or according to the categorisation of the alter-

-ations that they have undergone. In short, it will detail the different aspects that justify their gre-

ater or lesser heritage value. The systematisation that this work seeks to afford to this group of

sites and monuments is also essential for the study of the phenomena identified in the architec-

tural and urbanistic fields, together with other kinds of phenomena relating to areas such as lan-

guage, sociology, science or religion. The underlying purpose is to understand the full complex-

ity of the results deriving from the meeting of cultures promoted by the dispersal of the portu-

guese across the non-european world.

although the intention is therefore to conduct a systematic survey of buildings, monu-

ments and sites of architectural and urbanistic interest, exhaustive lists are avoided, since their

compilation would be a nigh on impossible task if this same criterion were applied to the last of

the portuguese colonies. In fact, the aim is not to record all the remains of architectural and

urbanistic items of total or partial portuguese origin, but only to make a complete and thorough

survey of sites and monuments already identified as such, and which, moreover, are sufficien-

tly relevant to be considered as traces or remains of the portuguese presence with their “own

identity”. By sites and monuments with their “own identity”, we mean those that, because of their

own particular form, artistic value, functional value, symbolic meaning, dimensions, or techni-

cal characteristics, can be considered as places or buildings that enjoy a certain autonomy, and

about which there are known to exist (or might one day be discovered to exist) historical refe-

rences in a variety of narrative or documentary sources. Therefore, excluded from this book are

the remains of buildings, sites and monuments whose origin cannot be identified, as well as

uncharacteristic buildings that are considered to have no cultural value whatsoever.

an attempt was made to gather together as much information as possible, especially that

of a historical and technical nature, about the sites and monuments of some relevance. priority

was therefore given to concrete data (names, dates, events) that made it possible to associate

the selected sites and buildings with broader sets of information about the portuguese presence

in the world and to reconstruct what might be called “the production conditions” under which

those same sites and buildings were constructed. nonetheless, the aim was merely to compile

the available information, mainly that included in specialised publications (in other words, to

present what is usually referred to as “the state of the art”), without attempting to conduct any

new research. The bibliography presented at the end of each article serves to justify the descrip-

tion provided in the summaries, to attribute the already published information and interpretive

opinions to their corresponding authors, and to provide guidance for any possible future rese-

arch into these themes.

The final result of the work is presented as a “dictionary” of sites and monuments, listed in

alphabetical order according to the names of the places where they are located. This “dictionary”

is preceded by a general introduction to each of the four regions considered in this book, helping

readers to understand the relevant historical and cultural background to each case (general his-

tory, history of art, history of architecture, history of urbanism, etc.) and to place them within

their geographical, diachronic and cultural context. The “entries” are classified according to their

present-day place names, in keeping with the current official spelling of the respective countries,

but the “old” names are also shown, namely those used in portuguese documentation and the

historiography of the overseas territories from the 16th to the 19th centuries. In the case of sites

with several buildings or monuments, some general information is provided first of all, which is

then followed by information regarding each building or monument to be found at the same site,

according to the four functional categories (religious architecture, military architecture, equip-

ment and infrastructure, and houses), also given in alphabetical order. It was decided to main-

tain the writing style of each author.

lastly, a brief reference should be made to the possible problems and difficulties that may

be found in the four geographical areas defined in the three volumes of this inventory. The divi-

sion into three continents – asia, america and africa – and an area located in two of them (Islam)

arises as a result of practical considerations. It is based on the fact that each of these areas has

predominant features that are different, although not exclusive, which, in turn, explains the

choice of the specialised coordinators invited to supervise the works and their distribution. There

is a certain logic behind this division. The Islamic area includes the first buildings of portuguese

origin to be constructed outside the european continent. Considering that these first contacts

were mainly of a military nature, there is a predominance of fortresses and fortifications from

the 15th and 16th centuries, including those built in morocco and in the rest of the mediterra-

nean world and the persian Gulf.

The volume devoted to asia brings together the heritage built under the auspices of the

portuguese State of India and that which depended, from a religious point of view, on the Padro-

ado Português do Oriente (the portuguese ecclesiastical patronage of the east), not only within

the peninsula of Hindustan (the Indian subcontinent) itself, but also at the portuguese settle-

ments and trading posts that were created within its sphere of influence. also associated with

this is the heritage that would later on have its own distinct features, arising from a profound

change in the historical conditions under which portuguese administration continued to be

applied in that region, as was the case with macao and timor. The predominant historical period

is the 16th and 17th centuries, but various circumstances (such as the continuation of the Padro-

ado, for example) led to significant changes in increasingly smaller areas, leaving evidence of

buildings in many areas that may have either erased or concealed an earlier portuguese influence

there.

In Brazil and the Colónia de Sacramento (in present-day Uruguay), which ended up repre-

senting the only examples of the portuguese presence in america, the greater intensity of buil-

ding in the 17th and 18th centuries – with almost entirely faithful reproductions of portuguese

models – the region’s initial sugar production, subsequently followed by the mining of gold and

diamonds, became the background for the creation of entire portuguese communities and the

adoption of administrative systems similar to those found in portugal, with variants arising from

the large-scale exploitation of slave labour, the war against the dutch and the French, and the

continued presence of the royal court there until the very eve of independence.

introduction · 17


Finally, in sub-Saharan africa there are more or less isolated remains of coastal trading

posts and fortresses, mainly built to provide support for ships sailing to and from India, and later

used for the capture of slaves. But it is not these constructions that define the global sense of the

portuguese colonial heritage in the region. The penetration deeper inland was a belated phe-

nomenon. The territory was to become marked by the portuguese presence only from the

19th century onwards, firstly with the military occupation of the river valley, and then with the

establishment of colonial structures designed to guarantee the exploitation of the region’s natu-

ral resources, especially in the form of raw materials, as also happened in the other european

colonies of the african continent. although, in the final decades of the portuguese occupation

of africa, some attempts were made to create the structures necessary for the implantation of

an eventual “white regime”, the colonial war completely frustrated such plans. But there are still

all kinds of significant traces of the portuguese presence to be found there. Without ever produ-

cing works with an architectural value that could be considered equivalent to that of so many

of the portuguese monuments in the orient or in Brazil, and displaying all the hallmarks of

the sometimes excessive control exercised by the portuguese government, there were still a

number of interesting buildings constructed there, inspired by the architectural movements of

modernism, art deco, art nouveau, or modern architecture. For ideological reasons, the inde-

pendent governments of angola and mozambique did not always afford these buildings the

level of appreciation that they deserved.

The disturbances brought by the colonial war and by the difficulties that the present-day

governments subsequently had in establishing themselves led to the creation of certain obsta-

cles that now make it impossible for us to have full and complete access to information about

the conditions under which some buildings and monuments of portuguese origin were crea-

ted, as well as about their current state of repair. For this reason, there may be a need to update

some of the information included in the volume about africa. But the same situation is also to

be noted, for different reasons, in the case of the volume that is dedicated to asia. In fact, con-

ducting a complete survey would also require the direct examination of many places where one

can find traces of the portuguese presence that have not yet been identified. Such an under-

taking is, however, beyond the scope and stated aims of this present work, because it would

require us to carry out entirely new research into this area. as explained above, this inventory is

merely intended to provide a synthesis of the research that has already been undertaken.

moreover, in a work of this kind, the gathering together of information is always a provisio-

nal matter. The fact that the aim is to draw up a complete inventory inevitably leads to the appe-

arance of new data, a broadening of the research field and even the alteration of the selection cri-

teria. new documents are discovered, archaeological excavations are carried out and reveal new

data, while some traces and remains of buildings and monuments might even disappear as a

result of armed conflicts, natural disasters or a certain negligence in their preservation. The sole

wish of the organisers of this inventory is that it may prove useful for those interested in the world’s

cultural heritage, contributing to a greater and more improved knowledge of the culture of the

various peoples that inhabit the world and stimulate their mutual enrichment.

although I was called upon to act as the organiser of this inventory, I must firstly stress

that, for the production of this work, we are fundamentally indebted to the four coordinators

who performed the tasks of establishing which sites and monuments should be described, brin-

ging together the necessary team of collaborators and providing, for each area, an overall view

of the whole into which these same sites and buildings could be fitted, and indicating the

networks of relationships existing between them in terms of their positions in space and time

and within the broader context of civilisation. They were chosen because of their recognised

personal competences, which each of them had demonstrated earlier in their respective geo-

graphical areas: professor renata malcher de araújo for South america; professor Filipe The-

mudo Barata for the Islamic countries of north africa and the persian Gulf; professor José manuel

Fernandes for Sub-Saharan africa; and professor Walter rossa for the orient. I wish to express

my heartfelt thanks for the way in which they devoted themselves to such a painstaking and

sometimes thankless task, as well as the generosity with which they shared their knowledge of

their respective fields of expertise. not having any competence of my own in either the History

of art or late mediaeval, modern and Contemporary History, I merely limited myself to choo-

sing this group of experts, standardising the criteria to be followed in the selection of the infor-

mation that they would then compile into texts, coordinating the various practical proposals

made for the formal presentation of this information, and checking that everything was done in

accordance with these pre-established principles. For this work, I sought the help and advice of

professor mafalda Soares da Cunha, from the University of Évora, who had already gained par-

ticular experience in similar areas as a member of the national Committee for the Commemo-

rations of the portuguese discoveries (CNCDP) in 1998 and 1999. I owe her a very special word

of appreciation. Without her, I would not have been able to successfully complete my task.

This work was commissioned from me personally by the president of the Calouste Gul-

benkian Foundation, emílio rui Vilar, and forms part of the programme of the Foundation’s

International department. It cannot be forgotten that this work is also a complement to the

much vaster programme for the recovery and restoration of monuments and buildings of por-

tuguese origin in the world, which the Gulbenkian Foundation has already been engaged in for

several years, and which has significantly contributed to the development of the meeting of cul-

tures. our work was closely accompanied by maria Fernanda matias, as the representative of

the Foundation’s International department, with a diligence and cordiality that we should par-

ticularly like to acknowledge here. We are firmly convinced that this work represents an impor-

tant contribution to the knowledge and preservation of the portuguese heritage outside europe.

We hope that it is worthy of the trust and confidence that the Foundation and its president have

placed in our work.

José mattoso

introduction · 19

General Overview: what’s what in this book

general overview: what’s what in this book · 21

What orient

the aim of this book cannot be better expressed than in the symbolic and polysemic

dimension that is implicit in its designation: orient. It does not, however, equal the ambition

that the portuguese took and spread across the oceans at the beginning of the modern era.

this ambition it will obviously be reflected in this text, in which my task is not only to present

and place in context but also to coordinate it, making it a coherent nexus and keeping it within

the expectations that a title, an editor and a promoter/publisher, such as those involved in

the collection, can aspire to. this general overview is completed by five other parts, each one

focusing on one of the geographic regions, the respective subjects of each being presented

in alphabetical order on two levels: first the places and, within this, the entries. as the need

to make a balanced volume should be taken into account, the geographic division may not

always seem logical, especially in the fourth part.

the book deals with an orient with a built and urbanistic heritage of portuguese origin

or influence, standing along the coastal strip between the meridian of diu, the parallel of

dili and, well to the north, nagasaki. due to overriding editorial criteria, it is an asia shorn

of its westernly quarter, corresponding to the western part of the arabian Sea and its gulfs,

the melting pot of Islam. However, the book touches on the extraordinarily vast, diversified

area that, as when the portuguese began thinking about reaching there in the 15th century

and when they unveiled it in the 16th, comes to us as an unknown, immense and, for other

reasons, mysterious. If in fact the portuguese searched for and genuinely desired something

in the world it was the orient, the asia whose significant architectural and urban remains

of portuguese origin this book aims to deal with.

the he ancientness of oriental civilizations and the part which, in an unequal way, they

played in the genesis and development of our own, constitute the central reasons for both

the attraction and the fear which gave rise to the fascination with which the West has always

perceived the orient. antiquity and civilisation have consistently and most emphatically

found their maximum expression there, which at times doesn’t allow us to realise that there

are also regions where man’s action is hardly felt and that nature is predominant in its most

idyllic sense. For the portuguese, as for all the other great colonial powers, the experience

of the orient was part of the learning process of empire.

The orient is incredibly dense, complex and varied in its many-faceted components.

to view it from the limited vision of the portuguese origins in a minute part of its built heritage

is, so to say, epistemological audacity. But for the advance of knowledge it is justified, once

these limits and the relativity are clearly faced and we are aware that, on the whole, portuguese

influence went, and still goes, far beyond this. to encompass everything it would be necessary


to invoke excessively diverse and intricate aspects of at least each of the defining moments of

the portuguese presence, which, in the face of the progress in research in the last two or three

decades would be an encyclopaedic undertaking. It must also be noted that the portuguese

were present in the orient before other europeans and stayed in macau until december

1999, making it the longest-lasting european colony ever.

I reference must, however, be made to what I believe to be the most important keys to

understanding, as a whole, the three hundred and twenty-six voices that follow. With the five

regional overviews and the historical and geographical details that are part of them, it may be

possible to provide a reading of the varying contexts and thus open up perspectives of

interpretation that will obviously be widened by other readings which, in fact, it is my function

to suggest. For reasons that I hope will become obvious I will place special emphasis on

founding events. other episodes will be mentioned in the parts that correspond to each region

and in cases where a mention is justified, namely when the entries are not clear enough. In the

second half of the text I have tried to trace a contextualised perspective of what has been the

product of knowledge (and the chief instruments of this) of the subject: the portuguese

presence in the orient through its architectural and urbanistic heritage. Finally, in order to

establish a link between the five sectorial texts, which after all make up one single text, I will

present some considerations on the specific criteria and options assumed for this book.

goa, india arched and vault of the church of saint anne of talaulin photo: walter rossa


The book, in a certain way, is a journey and if it manages to be a guide, despite the lack

of itineraries, it will have indirectly achieved its main aims. It is not a journey in time, as the

journey takes place today, linking many and culturally diverse places that have vestiges of the

heritage in question. Heritage is not history, but something that is a testimony of it at present

or, we may say, an active past. This heritage that, being of portuguese origin, for long has not

been or never was portuguese, but was one of the novel ways of portugal being in the world.

like all journeys, this one will demand the concentration, identification, contextualisation

and interpretation of the reader and also challenge him to question things. let’s set out then.

goa, india wood-framed windowsphoto: walter rossa


What, why and who

It is usual to recognise two not always sequential but parallel cycles in the process of

expansion and colonisation that led to the first portuguese empire of the modern age: the

somewhat adventurous sorties by sea and the setting up of a network in order to build a sea

based empire and to claim territories, which was not always done with a view to colonisation.

the former is associated with the settlement of the atlantic islands and the orient; the latter

mainly with Brazil. Still less known is the relevance of the effectiveness of government by the

portuguese crown over considerable swathes of Indian territory, and, consequently, the relativity

of its role given the initiatives of individuals and religious orders, in both cases often produced

by people of differing nationalities and european origins. the spiritual sphere of action was

immeasurably greater than the territorial, and its dominion not established by sovereignty.

These questions are crucial if one is to understand how the portuguese presence

developed in the orient, and to an understanding of its influence on the built heritage. But

taking the empire as a whole, it is also crucial to take into account that, apart from the somewhat

unsuccessful episodes in north africa, it was only in the Far east that portuguese colonialism

came face to face with civilisations that had reached a level of progress that was equal to that

of europe. While some of the places that portuguese navigators, merchants and priests reached

were uninhabited and/or ruled by weak or overstretched sovereigns, most of them were

settlements integrated in strong states and stable and well organised urban networks. more

than occupying and colonising – which were never the initial aim – hard bargaining, conquest

and, almost always, competing, was necessary. The first urban complex built in the orient,

Kochi, was constructed out of necessity rather than being a planned undertaking.

The two main reasons that led the portuguese to launch their overseas expansion are

common knowledge: economic and social development and evangelisation. Behind these

two reasons, of course, lay the challenge and the naked ambition of power, which was always

as strenuously denied as it was natural. The desire for expansion into north africa, begun in

1415, but implicit and even encouraged by the Vatican since the conclusion of the conquest

of portuguese territory in 1249, possessed all the condiments that had been recommended

since the process that the central european Christian matrix designated as a crusade. a

crusade that, in portugal’s case, ideologically brought the former Visigothic kingdom under

Christian domination through a process known as the reconquest. However, as this was

done and pushed by non-Iberian europeans who were already Catholics and not merely

Christians – the reconquest was the last invasion, but the most important one since the

romans – they moulded portugal, and this is crucial to an understanding of the mixed-race

nature of portugueseness and its destiny in the world.

The crusade in north africa, however, turned out badly, as did the colonial rough draft

that encompassed it, and its impulse was diverted to the project for the Indian ocean, thanks to

everything that was known about the orient and as a result of the successes of the first voyages

of maritime exploration. as far as the portuguese were concerned, a journey there only made

sense if made by sea, even without knowing that this implied discovering for civilisation the

ocean of atlantis. Finding other Christian families in the middle of a vast trading empire was


more than a hope, it was one of the reasons that drove the portuguese fleets down the West

african coast until what was to become the first great discovery of the portuguese discoveries: a

passage from the atlantic to the Indian ocean in 1487. It is not by chance that this is better-

known as the discovery of the sea route to India, which was only sailed for the first time in 1498.

arrival in India revealed to europeans a myriad of unexpected realities which were

balanced with the gradual recognition and knowledge of asian geography. little was seen of

what was expected, except the riches, the vital hubs and, worst of all, the overwhelming presence

of the muslims who held an almost exclusive monopoly of long-haul trade and transport. the

portuguese quickly realised that to trade and evangelise they would have to establish stable

bases that would not only make local contacts possible but also, as a network, guarantee control

of maritime traffic, especially that which carried goods on the old routes to europe via the gulfs

of the arabian Sea. this not only increased the income rate of taxes over the Indic maritime

traffic – through the cartazes, the safe conducts system created in 1506 – to the level of the

revenues from the Carreira da India [the lisbon-India run], but also led to the establishment

of an impressive network of fortified points of various types. In the end the portuguese were

propelled not so much by market laws as by

the proselytism of their fleets.

two basic trading objectives, backed

up by sea power, and the ways to implement

them were established: local trade, in which

private entrepreneurs participated and the

crown taxed; a portuguese monopoly on

traffic to europe by means of the annual

Carreira da India, all specifically concen-

trated on the coasts of the Indian ocean

encompassed between Ceylon and the

persian Gulf and immediately in the first two

decades of the 16th century. Kozhikode

(which the portuguese managed to take over

replacing the occupied Kochi), the Gulf of

Khambhat (which the portuguese tried to

control from daman and diu), Hormuz and

aden (which the portuguese tried to conquer,

only being successful with the former) are the

nodal points of trade in that region. In the

orient, malacca (which the portuguese

conquered) was the hub of several trade

routes, the products of which were channelled

to Kozhikode and Khambhat, chiefly by

mappilas and Banias (two ethnic groups or

clans of merchants from malabar and Gujarat

respectively).

goa, india street market in margaophoto: walter rossa


to the east of Ceylon, however, with many variations and some exceptions, of which

malacca is an example, the portuguese found ways to trade and evangelise with less back-up

from the military and, consequently, the crown. Controlling the flow of trade to europe in the

arabian Sea and on the Cape route was the chief priority for the latter, so strengthening the

role of a centre where everything flowed to and from lisbon was of the utmost importance.

With the first fleets and before a detailed reading of the situation and consequent

implementation of strategies, that centre was set up at Kochi, in the southern sector of the west

coast of Hindustan, the malabar Coast, in 1503. This was done only after fierce protests against

the portuguese presence on the part of the muslim merchants to the Hindu ruler of Kozhikode,

which was then the hub of that region. Besides being governed by a vassal of the Samorin of

Kozhikode who saw the chance to free himself from this dependence, Kochi was a secondary

port but had better access to the mountains in the hinterland where pepper was cultivated. It

was also situated relatively near Ceylon, another centre of pepper production, besides standing

on the route that led to the Far east and other centres that are the source of products rare in

europe and which gave it the potential to be the link for direct trade with lisbon.

The relative ease with which the portuguese staked their claim on the seas and coasts

of Hindustan was due to the fact that the potentates of the subcontinent – of the mughal,

Bahmani (meanwhile subdivided into several sultanates, including that of Bijapur) and

Vijayanagara empires – had systems of continental logic. They had no fleets and the authority

in the coastal strips and ports was weak and the muslim merchants exercised a powerful

influence on the system that supplied the caravans between the persian Gulf and the red Sea

and europe. most of the seaborne trade was in the hands of muslim merchants, above all

from the ottoman empire, and when their hegemony was called into question by the new

portuguese presence they assembled armadas to fight the intruders, receiving technical and

financial support from european potentates such as Venice that profited from the trade. In

the early days the main focus of opposition to the portuguese was, in fact, from the merchants

rather than local sources.

Kochi was chosen as the first centre of portuguese operations in the orient when the

fifth armada was sent to India, commanded by afonso de albuquerque (1453-1515), making

his first voyage, and his cousin Francisco and antónio de Saldanha. We will not go into details

here, but the procedures tried on the african coast were continued in this case and eventually

became the norm for many of the situations in which bases were set up through negotiation

and not force: permission to establish a trading post on the outskirts of the pre-existing urban

nucleus – obtained by pedro Álvares Cabral (1468-1520) in 1501 and confirmed by Vasco da

Gama (1460/1469-1524) on his second voyage in 1502-1503 – was quickly followed by the

construction of a fortification, which gave the newcomers a certain foothold of sovereignty.

as one can read in the Livro das Cidades e Fortalezas… (The Book of Cities and Fortresses…)

(1582) regarding Kannur, Kodungallur, Kochi and Kollam (the portuguese entrepôts on the

malabar Coast): “these fortresses known as trading posts in which merchandise and goods

are guarded, together with people. The portuguese made them much stronger and turned

them into fortresses in the most convenient places, so that their artillery could dominate the

people of the cities at the port entrance.”


The Church and a potential portuguese settlement ofpeople followed, in some cases

giving rise to an urban nucleus of a clearly portuguese profile, Kochi being a good example of

this. The places chosen were always open to the sea and closed as much as possible to the land,

preferably islands, capes or peninsulas. In short, the whole system was based on four

foundations in the first years: cartazes [tax safe conducts], armadas, trading posts and fortresses.

The appointment and the government of the first Viceroy of India, Francisco de almeida

(1450-1510, gov. 1505-1509), represent the defining of the first set of strategic plans to cement

the portuguese presence in the orient, which was clearly centred on the malabar Coast but

also looked to the north, towards Karanataka, Konkan, Gujarat and beyond, up to the Gulf of

Khambhat. as in the following years, these were troubled times in which multiple interests

and intrigues, which the historiography of the expansion has mentioned and interpreted,

were enmeshed in the implementation of the guidelines. What is of importance here is the

perception of the struggle that was being waged in the Indian ocean between the east coast

of africa and the west coast of Hindustan, with the actions of the first Viceroy giving the

portuguese the upper hand. In the meantime, the first contacts were made with the malay

peninsula and steady progress was made northward from Kochi to Chaul and diu, during

which the strategic importance of Goa, the chief city of a small territory of the same name,

located on an island called tiswadi (or tissuary) just off the coast, was recognised.

When afonso de albuquerque (gov. 1509-1515) became governor in 1509, the

portuguese engagement in these two important axes increased, following the conquests and

settlement that he himself had carried out on the northeast coast of africa and the two

arabian gulfs in 1507-1508 before taking over the reins from Francisco de almeida in Kochi

in 1509. The latter’s last act, meanwhile, was the total destruction of his main opponents’

armada in the celebrated naval battle of diu on 3 February 1509, a victory that gave the

portuguese access to the Indian ocean. albuquerque’s main aim had been Hormuz, but after

an initial attempt at building a trading post and fortress in the last months of 1507 the project

was abandoned until 1515. In that year the (re)conquest of Hormuz was albuquerque’s last

act and, despite failing to take aden, completed his objective of making the arabian Sea a fief

of the portuguese for decades.

The conquest of Goa in 1510 and of malacca in 1511 sealed the portuguese presence on

those two axes. malacca would be the advanced post for the portuguese administration in

the Far east and both expeditions and embassies to the east, mainly to China, left from there.

on almost thousand kilometres of the western coast of Hindustan, Goa was the only port that

had easy access to the Gates mountain chain that in turn gave access to the interior tableland,

deccan or the Indian meseta. It was the port that received the intense and profitable trade in

horses from persia, chiefly Hormuz.

The rise in the importance of Goa was not as swift as that of malacca, but it was more

long-lasting, as the transfer of the hub of portuguese power in the orient to the former,

contained in the estado da Índia formula, took place at the beginning of the 1530s. Without an

assumed organic definition, concrete or even possible, the estado da Índia encompassed all

the activities, premises and territories under portuguese administration from the Cape of

Good Hope to the pearl river delta, which leads me to make some references to regions and


places that appear in the book on africa, namely those relative to the red Sea and the persian

Gulf. It is not always clear if the religious component of the portuguese presence in those

places – the Padroado, which I will speak about later – can be considered as a part of this state.

It may be more consensual to consider it as not, but both organisms always worked in close

articulation and had the same head, the king. Goa was also their chief material testimony.

The centralisation of the (incipient) estado da Índia in Goa during its longest

governorship – that of nuno da Cunha (1487-1539, gov. 1529-1538) – was also the time of a

general strategic rethink of expansion, if we wish to use that expression, within the logic of

the essence of empire. It was in this decade that the first moves to colonise Brazil were made,

through the creation and the granting of captaincies. Investment in the northwest coastal

strip of Hindustan was made so as to obtain territory and, thus, a potential colony: the

northern province with its seat at Vasai, a town taken at the end of 1534. The integration of

daman in 1559 increased the expansion. Goa also acquired a territorial dimension in 1543,

when the mainland areas of Salcette and Bardez definitively joined the island of tiswadi and

formed the area that is still known today as the old Conquests.

goa, india cross of saint anne of talaulimphoto: walter rossa


all this was possible because the deccan was in upheaval with internecine struggles

between Hindu kingdoms, the advance from the north of a muslim power, the mughal empire

and all its ramifications. The territories of Goa had fallen into the hands of the Sultanate of

Bahmani in 1469 and, after that had split into several smaller sultanates, became a part of the

Sultanate of Bijapur, from which the portuguese took it later. The movement northward, namely

to the rich Gulf of Khambhat, constantly surged ahead against Islamic dominions, in an intricate

succession of alliances and betrayals in keeping with local disagreements and wars. It had been

like this since the beginning in India between Kozhikode and Kochi, with Kannur in the middle.

This made a substantial difference regarding the way that territories are established

and occupied according to the dominant faith, obviously underlining the role of the church.

We have until now mentioned the (commercial-military) strategy of the crown, which

necessarily led to an empire that, being initially seaborne, ended up by being markedly

urban. It was in cities – not necessarily portuguese – that change took place and was

maintained, even after the loss of the control of the seas. The translation into portuguese of

Charles Boxer’s (1940-2000) seminal work The Portuguese Seaborne Empire (o Império

marítimo português), published in 1969, is significantly equivocal. It is true that the First

portuguese empire was created at sea and was essentially coastal, but it was not merely

seaborne. and this was fundamentally due to the action of the church, which was more

widespread and enduring than that of the state.

discussion on the ideological context of the reasons for the religious actions that,

coming to a climax during the reign of King manuel I (r. 1495-1521), also had a hand in

portuguese expansion does not fall within the scope of this work. I have already mentioned

the importance that the news that there were Christian communities assumed at the

beginning of the process, but it would be very little in the face of the messianic ideas exalted

in that kingdom and immediately turned into further myths, even utopias, that never ceased

to spread and attract followers. extremely complex, but more concrete and crucial as far as

we are concerned is the theme of the Padroado.

The portuguese Padroado consisted of a series of exclusive privileges, rights and duties

that had been little by little granted by popes to portuguese monarchs through a series of

bulls and papal letters, the first of which was Inter Caetera (1456) and the last Praecelsae

Devotiones (1514). Being extremely absorbed with simmering questions in europe, the popes

delegated to portugal the patronage of the roman Catholic missions in the vast regions that

portugal had brought to the world. Irrespective of their nationality, priests that worked in

these territories were sustained by the crown and owed obedience to the king of portugal.

paradigmatic of this is the statement by Francisco Xavier (1505-1552) in a letter written in

malacca on 20 June 1549 when he was preparing his journey to Japan with two other Spanish

Jesuits: “we are three portuguese.” He probably did not mean it in this sense, but in many

regions “portuguese” became synonymous with “Catholic”.

The portuguese crown had thus for all practical purposes acquired the power to

manage all the affairs of the church in its empire, a fact that not only strengthened the

inspiration of the myths I mentioned in the two previous paragraphs but also led to the

implementation of policies that had a clear regal inclination, to the point that it created


threats of separation and an effective cut in relations between portugal and the Holy See at

the beginning of the 18th century. While the religious head, the portuguese monarch had at

one time potentially more direct subjects than the pope himself. The only limit was the

identical privileges granted to the Spanish monarch at the same time (1493-1512) and which

ended up encompassing other regions of the world.

Keeping abreast of the process of expansion, the portuguese Padroado consolidated

and enlarged the concept of the First portuguese empire, which, together with the Spanish,

was the first on a worldwide scale. The two monarchs concentrated all the power then

recognised and implemented in their hands. In the case of portugal, the administration of

the church – or of the ‘spiritual’ as it was then known – had a special expression in the orient

as, contrary to Brazil, it faced other religions with which it inevitably entered into conflict

while attempting to attract converts. practically everything we said about the fascination,

mystery and antiquity of the orient was based precisely on the fact that the mixture and the

deep-rooted factions of the most consistent religious beliefs and practices of the world were

to be found there. among them, the Christians descended from the mythical apostolate of

Saint Thomas and the later nestorian evangelisation did not always welcome their recently-

arrived roman Catholic brothers. There, all the Christian families have remained separate

right up to the present day.

Curiously, the Catholic Church promoted its own split when the Vatican decided to

question the existence of the Padroado and created another structure for the task of

evangelisation in 1622, the Congregation for the propagation of the Faith, or more

appropriately, propaganda Fide, which exists today under a new name given to it by pope

paul II in 1988, the Congregation for the evangelisation of peoples. It had, however, a direct

but irregular antecedent, the Cardinalate Commission of propaganda Fide, which was

created in 1572 and whose action was dependent on the dynamic of its respective cardinals.

The dates speak for themselves. In the first of these periods, the size and form of the planet

and the continents and thus the potential for evangelisation were globally clarified. In the

second period, portugal was a demoralised nation, with a weakened economy and state and

enmeshed in the upheavals of the crowns of austria.

The propaganda Fide set out on its mission, restricting the Padroado and occupying

the vast interstitial spaces that were still vacant, which only made sense in the orient as Brazil

there was nowhere to go. a small country with a small population and few resources, portugal

was never able to carry out systematic missionary work in the large areas of its empire,

especially in the orient. But even so, the two institutions did not work in harmony, but were

in constant conflict. Which was not what was expected and the situation dragged on until the

20th century. as mentioned above, the conflict reached its peak at the beginning of the 18th

century, at least as far as its becoming common knowledge was concerned. Following the

restoration of independence in 1640, the Holy See (1669), after Spain (1668), was the last

state to recognise portuguese sovereignty. and even then it resisted diplomatic pressure to

restore the portuguese Padroado of the orient to the situation it enjoyed at the time the two

Iberian crowns were unified in 1581. The inroads that the propaganda Fide made into the

Padroado’s space were considerable and almost irreversible.


The propaganda Fide worked in several ways and it put pressure on other colonial

powers in order to increase its sway. Its struggle with the Padroado in the former provincia do

norte, more precisely with its centre in mumbai, is a good example of this. after the portuguese

had ceded the Island of mumbai to the British crown in 1666, a bishopric outside the scope

of the Padroado was created and the apostolic Vicariate was settled in mumbai in 1718 with

British backing. portuguese sovereignty came to an end in the region at the time of the

campaign against the marathas, the rising Hindu power that overthrew the muslim mughals

in Hindustan, in 1737-1740, but spiritual jurisdiction continued the under aegis of the

archbishopric of Goa. The posterior British expansion in maratha territory, i.e. former

portuguese territory, encompassed part of the archdiocese of Goa, but fell under the

jurisdiction of the Bishop of mumbai, backed up by propaganda Fide. This thus created a

situation of overlapping ecclesiastical jurisdictions.

colaba, mumbai, indiatombstone in the saint francis Xavier churchphoto: acervo bbb, uc/darQ


The concordat of 1886 attempted, among other things, to put an end to the conflicts that

resulted from this situation, accepting the overlap but imposing rules. The diocese of mumbai

was elevated to archdiocese and the diocese of daman was created as a suffragan of that of

mumbai. This strengthening of the statutes resolved nothing, but exacerbated the problem, as

it created the paradoxical coexistence of two Catholic Churches, one of the portuguese

Padroado and one of the propaganda Fide, in the same territory. So while the concordat was in

force, between 1886 and 1928, two rival Catholic bishops, of mumbai and daman, coexisted in

the same city, the latter as head of the diocese of the portuguese city but, due to competition

and reasons of apostolic operation, almost permanently resident in the large metropolis of the

British empire, more precisely in Colaba, where today the Church of Saint Francis Xavier is to

be found. This complex, smouldering question is dealt with in ernest r. Hull’s book Mumbai

Mission – History, with a special study of the Padroado question, published in mumbai in 1927.

a new concordat in 1928 attempted to bring some sense to the question: the area of the

diocese of daman was divided, one part being reintegrated into that of Goa and the other

into that of mumbai and, thus, withdrawn from the Padroado: the bishops of mumbai had to

be alternately portuguese and British. This concordat and an amendment the following year

practically eliminated all of the Padroado’s jurisdiction in territories that were not under

portuguese administration.

It must be remembered that the period between the two concordats of 1886 and 1928

was one of the most tumultuous in the history of portugal, along with the British ultimatum

in 1890, the regicide in 1908, in short, a series of crises that would lead to the proclamation of

the republic in 1910, a republic that, among other things, was fiercely anti-clerical. The First

republic fell to a military coup d’etat on 28 may 1926 that installed a dictatorship which re-

established a strong relation between state and church. all this has to be taken into account

when dealing with the slow demise of the Padroado. among several works by antónio da

Silva rego (1905-1986) on the subject, O Padroado Português do Oriente, published in 1940,

gives a good account of all these questions, as do several works by eduardo Brasão on the

relations between portugal and the Holy See.

a similar situation to that in mumbai arose in Calcutta and Chennai/mylapore – two

other important cities of the raj – although it did not reach the same dramatic level because

the portuguese presence there never took the shape of territorial sovereignty. two other brief

references demonstrate the extent to which the Padroado laid down roots much beyond what

one is led to believe by what has been said above: the diocese of macau was suffragan to that

of Goa until 1975, when it passed to the direct dependence of the Vatican, while the parishes

of Saint Joseph in Singapore and Saint peter in malacca were only separated from the same

diocese in 1981. It must be mentioned that at its peak the structure of the portuguese Padroado

of the orient was based on the archdiocese of Goa, the diocese of which was created in 1534

and elevated to a metropolitan archdiocese in 1558, which had Kochi, malacca, macau, Funay

(Japan) and mylapore as suffragan dioceses. daman appeared fleetingly later.

With everything I have mentioned about the portuguese Padroado of the orient, I like

to make one thing clear: spiritual jurisdiction in the orient was territorial and lasted much

longer than the administrative jurisdiction. The case I cited as the chief example – mumbai,


which lay in the part of the província do norte that corresponded to the former portuguese

district of Vasai – is maybe the most paradigmatic, but as we have seen it is by no means the

only one. There were many regions where the portuguese crown exercised no other form of

jurisdiction except spiritual. and this happened because the Padroado was, in practice, the

prerogative of the crown.

This leads us to a subject that, although well known, I must mention: the role played by

the religious orders as direct administrators, delegated by the estado da India, of large areas

of territory. This was the case (which we shall deal with in more detail in the text itself ) of the

territories of the Velhas Conquistas (old conquests) of Goa – with the exception of the Island

of tiswadi, where the two capitals, Goa (old Goa) and panaji were established – and parts

of the província do norte. This role had obvious reflexes in the religious architecture and is

also relevant when observing various types of urban and land management that are related

to the religious order that established them. It was always under the tutelage of the religious

congregations that the portuguese presence made itself felt in rural areas, irrespective of

whether they were under portuguese sovereignty. The state arrived late even in Goa, i.e.

when the religious orders were extinguished in 1834.

This land management cannot conceal one other specific aspect of the portuguese

presence in the orient in relation to other places in the empire: urban apartheid, not of

ethnic groups, but of religious confessions, which in some situations occurred also between

european Catholics and ‘local Catholics’. This situation cannot, of course, be confused with

the then common social settlement of the urban space. However, this was a reality that

could not be hidden and which, it must be said, was not new in asia or in europe. only the

expulsion or the forced conversion of Jews and muslims in 1496 put an end to this situation

in portugal. The problem did not exist in other parts of the empire such as Brazil and africa,

as it was considered that other faiths did not even exist.

an unequivocal example of this fact is the caption on the Planta da Fortaleza e cidade

de Diu (map of the Fortress and City of diu) produced by João antónio Sarmento in 1783

[porto public and municipal library, C. m. & a., File 24 (35)], in relation to a yellow line that

passes through the urban nucleus and “divides the Christians from the gentiles”. I should

add that diu was an exception, as freedom of religious worship and its respective regulations

had been established in the process of cession. another significant example was to be found

in Vasai, where the non-Catholics were forbidden to be inside the city walls after the gates

were closed at the end of the day, which in practice led them not to own property within

the urban nucleus. The same situation existed in Chaul, Kochi and daman, cities that had

a specific and well-defined portuguese urban nucleus, and the separation could be seen

in the street names. This phenomenon, of course could only be seen in places that had a

large portuguese population and was able to establish a community with its own urbanistic

expression. let’s look at another example in a different region: according to the Livro das

Cidades e Fortalezas… (Book of Cities and Fortresses) of 1581, the portuguese in nagapatan

“live in a settlement separated from Gentiles and moors”.

a relevant question and much easier to answer is that of the nationalities of the

Padroado’s agents. The overwhelming majority were regular priests, mainly Franciscans and


Jesuits, although augustinians, dominicans, Carmelites and Saint John of God (the order

of malta) also appeared in specific urban nuclei and geographic areas outside Goa, where

most of the then active religious orders were established. For reasons that are well known, the

Franciscans and the Jesuits were true missionary militias with an extraordinary capacity to act

and adapt to the most diverse situations. The prime reason for this was the fact that they were

not subject to a cloistered regime and their calling was to take their faith into the communities.

But as religious congregations they owed obedience to hierarchies that were not under

the wing of the Padroado, although they always needed its authorisation for the work they

undertook and to bring new members into their vast geographic areas. But this did not

prevent both groups bringing people of various nationalities into the areas of the Padroado’s

jurisdiction, which had important repercussions in several fields, especially in architecture,

so we must be very careful in defining what is and what isn’t heritage of portuguese origin.

We must remember Saint Francis Xavier’s words cited a few paragraphs above.

While the church was present alongside the portuguese military, bureaucrats,

merchants and adventurers from the time of the first armadas, it soon became the diplomatic

bridgehead of the portuguese presence, infiltrating into areas and regions where the

portuguese administration never arrived or, in some cases, arrived very late. This is the case,

mylapore, india church of our lady of light (stairway to bell tower) photo: walter rossa


for instance, of the Catholic Church in Kerala, a vast area that today is the Indian state of the

malabar Coast, which was, and still is, overwhelmingly Hindu and where the missionaries

worked under the aegis of the Padroado based in Kochi, but where portuguese administration

never made itself felt beyond the city walls. The same thing happened in the whole of the Bay

of Bengal, which was almost exclusively the fiefdom of the augustinians. probably the most

extreme examples were thoseof the ecclesiastics of the Padroado who reached the mughal

and Chinese courts, becoming intimate with emperors and leaving indelible cultural marks,

some of which will be dealt with in this book.

While in some regions the portuguese presence was prolonged through its church,

a presence which disappeared so slowly it is impossible to say when it came to an end, in

others it existed only through this channel, which makes delimiting it even more difficult.

It is significant that where dominant beliefs created a hostile environment the Padroado’s

priests were more warmly received by the rulers, but did not manage to make an impact on

the communities. on the other hand, in the Hindu world, for example, the Church had an

influence, sometimes lasting, on the masses.

distinguishing between what was and was not original becomes even more complex in

two extreme situations: those in which portuguese merchants and adventurers – characters

that sometimes appear in coeval texts under the suggestive designation of lançados and who as

we shall see, played a special role in the Bay of Bengal and the Far east – opening the way and

establishing this presence; and cases like those of the territories or places such as Goa, daman,

diu, macau and timor – the remains of the portuguese State of India between 1740 and 1961

– which, after more than four centuries of effective portuguese administration and the gradual

loss of interest in exploiting them economically, have flourished in the mould of a mestizo

culture that has its own characteristics and autonomy that (almost?) constitutes a nationality.

If we can forget the fact that it was the beginning of the end of the portuguese colonial

empire, through the encouragement it gave guerrillas in the portuguese possessions in africa

to take up arms, the ‘invasion’ (official portuguese version) or ‘integration’ (official Indian

version) of the portuguese possessions in India by that country at the end of 1961 caused

greater upheavals in the local society than in portugal. Besides the administrative and military

personnel, there was no real exodus of portuguese citizens. There were no colonists in the

true meaning of the word and, except for the elites, portugal itself meant little or nothing to

most of the inhabitants of the then estado da Índia. Things were quite different when angola

and mozambique became independent in 1975.

So the estado da Índia, or what was left of it after 1740, the year that saw the last great

alteration in its geographic configuration, when the província do norte was lost, except for the

cities of daman and diu and the insignificant contiguous territories of dadra, nagar-Haveli

and Gogola, passed into history. In the meantime, the ambitious but inglorious and ignored

pombaline plan of ‘restoration’ in 1774, aired in the context of British threats, never left the

drawing board. It was a cycle of about two centuries (1740-1961), in contrast to the two previous

cycles, one of a century (c. 1650-1740) and another of a century and a half (1498-c. 1650). In

compensation, Goa saw its territory increase threefold at the beginning of the last cycle

through the novas Conquistas (new conquests), territories that in civilizational terms (culture,


religion, architecture, land ordinance, etc.) never really became portuguese. The Goa-malacca-

Hormuz triangle, planned and established by afonso de albuquerque at the beginning of the

16th century and which symbolised, consolidated and articulated the portuguese monopoly of

the eastern seas in the initial golden period, had been broken up more than a century before

with the fall of Hormuz in 1622 and of malacca in 1641, as well as the loss of almost all the

portuguese possessions to the south and east of Goa, the last of these being Jaffna in Ceylon in

1658, which defines the chronology that divides the two first cycles at around 1650. The first of

these periods can be seen as one of expansion and consolidation, expansion being concluded

in 1540 with the arrival in Japan, the second as stabilisation and the third as restructuring.

portugal’s stunning entry into the orient soon attracted other european nations,

namely Holland, Britain and France. The last-named had little influence in the decline of

portuguese hegemony, as it only participated in one episode, in mylapore in 1672-1674.

european travellers flocked to the ships of Carreira da Índia and obtained and published

information that was as precious for those countries at the time as it is today for whoever

wishes to know the realities of the time. as has already been mentioned, the union of the two

Iberian crowns under austria was a determining factor in the decline of the estado da Índia.

an ever-increasing number of portuguese individuals, generically referred to above as

the lançados, also took advantage of the situation to pursue their own nests, at times entering

into conflict with the agents of the estado da India and going beyond the ambit of both the

State and the Padroado. Coming from many different places, an overwhelming majority

embarked for the orient in the service of the crown, but on completing their contracted three

years went their own way. There were several thousand of these people by the end of the 16th

century, some completely immersed in local culture, some even converting to Islam, but they

brought with them portuguese cultural genes that infiltrated into local customs. The vastness

of the Far east was their stamping ground. They were the seeds of an informal empire, the

“shadow empire” in the words of Charles Boxer and George Winius or the “sub-empire”

according to Sanjay Subrahamanyam.

The centres of interest of the portuguese empire were meanwhile shifting. In the

face of the dutch threat to Brazil, Goa and the província do norte of the estado da India,

priorities were set out, which consisted in maintaining these possessions in detriment

to others, as they were the only ones with a true colonial expression, i.e. had territorial

support. abandoned either when they were threatened or through prolonged lassitude or

negligence in maintaining their defensive systems, only macau and timor remained of the

portuguese batteries, forts, fortresses, strongholds, etc scattered over the orient. The major,

but prolonged and bloody attempt to control the whole of Ceylon, undertaken in the 1590s

and which would have allowed the setting up of an isolated territorial base that many people

would like to have seen as the head of the estado da India, was abandoned. paradoxically,

or not, this geo-administrative reality was typically colonial. Without the spice trade of the

moluccas, Ceylon and malabar, now in dutch hands, long-haul trade ceased to be one of the

reasons for the estado da India’s existence.

The reason for the collapse of the estado da India has been unendingly discussed and

arguments such as the greater strength and more modern armament of the dutch and the


British, plus the flexibility of their organisation in venture capital companies, etc., have been

aired. In my opinion, the explanation lies in the question of scale and good sense plus options

and priorities. If history has shown that it has always been impossible for one nation to acquire

worldwide dominion, why should we believe that portugal or the Iberian peninsula were

exceptions. When necessary – look at Brazil, for example – portugal continued to demonstrate

the capability of its armadas and the continual renovation of its military engineering. once the

provincia do norte had been lost in the 18th century, it was decided to secure and considerably

expand the territory of Goa, which was carried out with success. and a superhuman effort to

give Brazil the territorial immensity it has today was made at that time.

It seems appropriate at this stage to make a brief reference to the relevance of military

engineering in the whole of this process so as to help explain some historical facts. and brief

because it is a complex subject and one in which research has made giant strides in the last

few years. Items regarding fortifications occupy a lot of space in this book, not only because

of the places where they were constructed but also because of their varying sizes and due to

the fact that their material presence more easily conjures up a picture of their abandonment,

their aging and their increasingly ruinous appearance rather than their present use and

loss of character. In many cases, of course, they have been reused, modernised and even

renovated as fortified posts of the new ruling power.

Their presence is also relevant because unlike religious constructions fortifications were

always the work of the state and thus incontestably portuguese, irrespective of whomever

built them. I can mention the defensive system of passo de rachol as an example, which was

mumbai, india madh fortphoto: collection bbb, uc/darQ


erected by a religious congregation – the Society of Jesus – in order to fulfil the administrative

and defensive functions of the territory of Salcette (Goa) with which it had been entrusted by

the crown. But when all is said and done everyone participated and their expertise gradually

increased. In the chronicles of the first decades we see the crews of the armadas erecting

precarious fortifications in wood and later, when it became possible, in mortar and stone.

The last redoubts were forts or fortified houses, around which houses and amenities were

built, which in turn were protected by stockades and palisades. These were made of any

odds and ends or vegetal matter the men could lay their hands on. only later were encircling

walls constructed with the technique and the art of modern, specialised fortifications. The

stockades have completely disappeared today and so we have no idea of their importance,

their number or their meaning in the portuguese expansion in the orient.

Following an experimental (or archaic) phase of poor results whenever armaments

were updated, the crown ordered a change in 1541 and adopted the bulwark or bastion

system that was being tried out in the south of europe. to this end it contracted Benedetto

da ravenna, an Italian military engineer in the service of Carlos V, for some months to plan

and start the works of fortification at mazagan – today el Jadida (the new) in morocco. But his

main task was to direct and retrain some of portugal’s most outstanding architects, who were

sent there for this purpose. The following years saw a renovation of the defensive systems

in places and territories that, with rare exceptions, managed to remain under portuguese

domination in the face of dutch attacks on their eastern strongholds. and this is a fact that

will be dealt with in more detail in another context.

In fact, with the exception of Ceylon, where, despite everything, the structures were

small, weak and only built to face attacks from land, and the posts of the persian Gulf and red

Sea network (Hormuz, mombasa, etc.), the places where the crown erected urban defences

following the bulwark system were those that remained under portuguese sovereignty until

the fall of the província do norte. even so, daman and diu survived there until 1961, the latter

being the first place after mazagan where the new system of fortification was erected in 1547.

In other words, besides the província do norte I am alluding to Goa and macau. This raises a

question for which there is still no answer: given its importance within the framework of the

estado da India, why was malacca never fortified? Why was it that only macau deserved such

a benefit in the Far east? Was it because the hill where the portuguese fortification was built

had sufficient natural characteristics, or because the peculiar situation of the strait made an

unviable territorial control necessary rather than a bulwark fortification.

With this exception, if we look at the places where the crown started erecting these

kinds of perimeter works and fortifications facing the sea from 1550 to 1570, it seems to denote

that a choice was made regarding the loss or abandonment of certain footholds. While Vasai

was the first to be fortified in 1554, for example, followed by other places in the south of India

and Ceylon, Kochi was endowed with a small, weak structure much later, however without

conviction and prefiguring its fall. anyone could see at the time and the viceroys told the

court that unlike the strongholds and bars of the província do norte, Goa and macau, Kochi

was as vulnerable from attack by land as it was by sea. Was it a conscious or thoughtless

choice? less complex and so easier to interpret were the choices made in north africa, where


Ceuta, tangier and mazagan were protected by bulwarks and remained under portuguese

rule until non-violent processes brought it to an end.

The scope of military engineering, however, was not restricted to fortifications.

Ultimately, as we have seen, military engineering was the technical back-up for strategic

territorial options that encompassed the definition and establishment of the urban fabric,

the definition of urbanism and overall urban management. In the absence of alternatives,

it also provided technical assessment for multiple civil and religious interventions. While

religious congregations counted on architects and engineers among their faithful for their

own needs, the crown, even in its secular undertakings for the Padroado, mainly counted on

its military engineers, even though some of them were originally religious, and who had to be

both architects and urban planners.

Because of this, the progress made by modern military engineering was due to the

theatre of operations of portuguese expansion being used as an experimental laboratory

from the early stages both in north africa and the orient. While at first the statute and

professional category was somewhat ill-defined – high civil servants, pilots, etc. worked as

engineers – everything evolved to the point where everyone had his identifiable task within

the group. The contribution of foreign technicians, especially during the Iberian Union and

its aftermath (or the restoration), together with the training of locals, some of whom, like

manuel Godinho de erédia (1553-1623), were born in and never left the orient, produced

specific works that have led experts to admit the existence of a true portuguese school. This

was revealed in both the efficiency of the defensive system in diu in the middle of the 16th

century and in the stabilisation of Goa’s frontiers in the middle of the 18th century, which led

to the consolidation of the novas Conquistas.

other european powers that appeared in the orient took advantage of this. The progress

of dutch military architecture, recognised as the vanguard in the first half of the 17th century,

succeeding the Italian and then being succeeded by the French, must have owed something

to the portuguese experience in both the orient and in Brazil. It is significant that both the

dutch and the British followed similar paths to the portuguese and it is clear that they learned

from the good and the bad. They began with a strategic and aggressive commercial-military

posture in the form of monopolist companies specially constituted for the purpose, the so-

called India Companies. These reduced the areas taken to what was strictly necessary for

trading (factories) and the respective security (fortifications) and gradually spread until they

reached the situation of colonial domination, the raj in the British case, which was much

more extensive, intensive and consistent (classical?) than the portuguese.

Under the raj, the VoC (the dutch India Company) and other powers of greater or

lesser expression, however, the portuguese presence was maintained, impregnating the

cultural palimpsest of extensive areas of the orient in extraordinarily varied forms, through

acts performed by agents who were rarely aware of what they were doing. Besides the

language, the present influence of which is not as strong as is sometimes trumpeted, it is

essentially in spaces and in the buildings that form them – intrinsically architecture and

urbanism, even drastically adulterated – that we find the greatest testimonies of portuguese

influence in the orient today. as I wrote in another book some years ago, “please excuse my


bias, but nothing outlasts the urban and territorial structures of a culture, not even language.”

and why not architecture in its more restricted sense? Because buildings disappear, but they

are replaced or defaced, but their urban remnants – in the urban morphology – are more

enduring, especially when considered in complexes, systems and networks.

portuguese urbanism in the orient, however, is also a problematic question, as cities

founded from scratch are few and far between, and there are even fewer that were planned

and built following a definite project (dili, Vasco, Silvassa, while daman is the only one from

the ancien régime). Urban complexes sprang up around authorised factories that were soon

fortified (Kochi, Vasai, Chaul), a merchants’ camp annexed to a different nucleus (macau,

mylapore), and a place with even less expression and diffused historical influence (panaji).

a greater part were occupied cities that, despite being modified and enlarged, could not

have lost their initial gene (malacca), even when the occupation lasted for several centuries

(Goa). many of these cities did not even attain a portuguese urban dimension (diu, Thane).

But there is something immaterial in the spatiality of all of them – in many cases defined by

architecture that has nothing to do with it – that betrays a portuguese era (mumbai). But also

here, within the theme of ‘portuguese city’, the who, when and why are essential elements.

as all the agents I have mentioned here – State, Church and private individuals, with

their importance in that order – were the usual and inevitable promoters for the founding of

cities, the construction of defensive systems, monuments and buildings, the extraordinarily

varied and flexible forms and protocols through which they appeared and acted in the orient

are scarce in other theatres of the former portuguese empire. as were the results, which we

must always have in mind when looking at or reading this book.

What, who knows and who said what

as I wrote above, knowledge of the history of the portuguese presence in the orient has

been considerably developed in the last two or three decades. This has been mainly due to a

fortunate series of factors, of which the commemorative cycle celebrating the half millennium of

the discoveries was merely the catalyst. It happened not only through the widening of research,

but essentially in the way it has been approached, from political, economic and social history

to aspects of anthropology or arts that had rarely been dealt with before. among the reasons for

this are the improvement in conditions for the progress of research, freedom of ideological and

methodological attitudes, etc., the normalisation of relations between portugal and the countries

that either emanated from former portuguese possessions or were naturally part of them, plus the

increase in the interest that has arisen for portuguese phenomena in the orient outside portugal.

at the same time the progress of historiography on the presence of other colonial powers in that

region of the planet has increased, as has the widening of the studies on the various regions of

asia that have always been the favourite target of research: the west coast of India.

all this has led to means for the study of this wide subject appearing in various

universities, some of them in the form of study groups or centres that, above all, promote

multiple scientific meetings and publications in portuguese and other languages. This


in turn had led to not only an ever-increasing thematic specialisation but also a greater

internationalisation, even though the subject has always deserved the attention of foreign

researchers. There are many and, at times, true pioneers, those that dedicate themselves

to the history of the portuguese presence in a certain geographic area. many of them are

local-born and thus have access to information that is of difficult access to others. Whenever

justified, I will try to mention them in each of the five regions dealt with here.

Geographical specialisation is a current trend. Those that venture into global studies

are rare today and individual research that intertwines the two geographical nuclei of the

First empire, asia and Brazil, is almost non-existent. This was the perquisite of the first

generation of historians, but this now is only possible in collective works, but even so these

are less rare than the production of texts that synthesise them. It is extraordinarily difficult,

if not impossible, today to include, select and process in a balanced way all the necessary

information that is available, but this does not prevent efforts being made so that specialists

on both sides of the world – especially those on the ground, as it is much easier for the

portuguese – to gain more knowledge of the other side of the coin, as this interacts with the

events, structures and situations that they are studying.

Jaime Cortesão (1884-1960) stands out among those that managed to produce an

overall reading with the ten chapters he wrote for volumes III and IV of the História de

Portugal edited by damião peres (1889-1976), published by between 1931 and 1934 and

later compiled in separate editions. This was done in a period, that of the estado novo,

when everything that was published was strictly controlled, especially sensitive material

like that concerning the colonial empire, and this was especially so after the Second World

War. and in this context I must mention the efforts made by the participants at the primeiro

Congresso da História da expansão portuguesa no mundo (First Congress of the History of

portuguese Worldwide expansion) held in 1937 and which gave rise to the publication of

three volumes (the second of which is of special interests to us here) entitled História da

Expansão Portuguesa no Mundo and coordinated by antónio Baião (1878-1961), Hernâni

Cidade (1887-1975) and manuel múrias (1900-1960). In a certain way it functioned as a

propaedeutic for the Centenary Commemorations that were to take place three years later, in

the ambit of which the Congress of the portuguese World was held.

among more recent works (necessarily collective), I must mention Portugal no Mundo

(portugal in the World), published in six volumes (plus a special one dedicated to fortifications,

edited by rafael moreira) in 1989 and edited by luís de albuquerque, and História da

Expansão Portuguesa (History of portuguese expansion), published in five volumes in 1998-

1999 and edited by Francisco Bethancourt and Kirti Chaudhuri, which is today an essential

reference even though most of its material has become a little outdated in the last ten years,

which shows the volume of research on the subject that exists. among the authors of the

texts of these collective works one can of course find specialists like Kirti Chaudhuri on the

portuguese and/or european presence in the orient. But we must in no way forget other

structuring researchers such as Charles Boxer and Vitorino magalhães Godinho, to name but

two, or with a more and recent international reach anthony disney and malyn newitt, I must

notice that regarding the orient, Boxer has been especially dedicated to the study of macau.


What would present-day historiography be, for example, without luís Filipe Thomaz,

who has published a considerable number of essential texts, some of them in De Ceuta a

Timor (From Ceuta to timor), a collectanea published in 1994. an inveterate researcher, with

enduring, brilliant groundwork carried out in several places in the orient, a pioneer in the

knowledge and use of local languages in research and with a remarkable work in encouraging

the formation and following up of a flourishing group of investigators the Centro de História

do além mar (Centre of overseas History) of the Universidade nova of lisbon, a task shared

with artur teodoro de matos and today continued by João paulo de oliveira e Costa. among

the considerable number of high quality theses and the bibliography already published

there, emphasis must be placed on the ongoing production of the Enciclopédia Virtual da

Expansão Portuguesa (Virtual encyclopaedia of portuguese expansion) and the publication,

already with nine numbers, of Anais de História de Além-Mar (annals of overseas History).

another important centre is the Centro de Investigação Científica e tropical (Scientific

and tropical research Institute), both for the work it does and for the patrimony it possesses

as the direct heir of the former Junta de Investigações do Ultramar (overseas research Board).

a patrimony of research and publication bul also of archives, prominent amongst which is

what must be the major collection of documents on the history of portuguese expansion, the

arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (overseas Historical archive). I shall mention others later.

among various publishing projects of these two research centres, members of both

have brought out a general history of the portuguese presence in the orient in three volumes

and edited by luís Filipe Thomaz, of which only the first volume Portugal e Oriente: el proyecto

indiano del rey Juan (portugal and orient: the Indian project of King João) by João paulo

oliveira e Costa and Vítor rodrigues was published in madrid in 1992. From another origin

but also of enormous importance due to its geographical breadth and scope is the História

dos Portugueses no Extremo Oriente (History of the portuguese in the Far east), published in

four volumes (plus indexes) between 1998 and 2003.

outside portugal, outstanding due to its length and pioneering value is the work of

Jean aubin (1927-1998) and Geneviève Bouchon, who among other things were the main

dynamic of the magazine Mare Luso-Indicum, four numbers of which came out between

1971 and 1980. more recently, Sanjay Subrahmanyan, of whose works on the portuguese

presence in asia I shall only mention the classic The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500-1700, a

political and economic history, published in 1993, also stands out due to the geographic and

chronological breadth and the methodological innovation of his work. What is extraordinarily

important for us is his work on what Charles Boxer and George Wilnius, another relevant

reference, designated as the ‘shadow empire’, i.e., the extensive informal or even clandestine

space of portuguese influence where private individuals operated. It has been on the basis

of the work of these historians and their closest collaborators that the International Seminar

on Indo-portuguese History, which has already had thirteen editions and publication of the

respective proceedings, has been successfully held since 1978.

This considerable set of historians, as can be seen, works with a vast collection of

information and there is much more to be inventoried. a part of this information is in ordinary

types of sources, namely archives, but it is not always to be found in places where one should


expect to. In regard to this, the huge effort made throughout decades by some people to

publish archival sources, at times systematically, must be mentioned. The role of the estado

novo also lent its support in this task, namely through the ministério do Ultramar (ministry

for the overseas provinces), formerly Colonies, through organisms such as the agência Geral

do Ultramar (General overseas agency), created for propaganda and dissemination services,

and the above-mentioned Junta de Investigações do Ultramar (overseas research Board),

the last-named having research departments dedicated to history and old maps, which is

what interests us most here. These efforts focused on the portuguese presence and influence

in the orient, which I shall deal with later.

amongst the works I must mention are the eight volumes of a. da Silva rego,

Documentação Ultramarina Portuguesa (portuguese overseas documentation) and the

twelve of Documentação para a historia das missões do Padroado Português do Oriente: India

(documentation for the history of the portuguese Padroado missions of the orient: India).

The last-named has been republished by the orient Foundation with an additional volume of

indexes compiled by Isabel pina. edited by artur Basílio de Sá (1912-1964), the work would

have a parallel with another series of six volumes dedicated to the malay archipelago. There

are also the Documentos remetidos da India ou Livro das Monçoes (documents from India

or the Book of monsoons) from the torre do tombo archives, the first four volumes of which

were published under the editorship of Bulhão pato (1880-1893), then up to volume ten by

a. da Silva rego, and then completed with another two by a. teodoro de matos. a large part of

the collection is in the Goa Historical archive and was partially microfilmed on the initiative

of a. da Silva rego, of which there is an index compiled by maria augusta da Veiga e Sousa,

which I mention in the final list relative to sources.

It is essential to mention the huge work, Documenta Indica, of the Society of Jesus,

edited by Joseph Wicki (the last volumes by João Gomes) and published in rome in eighteen

volumes. With various institutional teams and backing, a. teodoro de matos has been

directing the publication of a varied series of sources of specific interest, examples of which

are summaries of the documents of the Junta da Fazenda (public Finances Board) of the

estado da India in three volumes, Tombo de Damão (1592), Tombo de Chaul (1591-1592) and

Tombo de Diu (1592), but the list does not end there.

In the face of this brief mention of the publication in portugal of a large series of

documents on the portuguese in the orient, it is important to refer to another initiative of

antónio da Silva rego, the Studia, a journal of the Centro de estudos Históricos Ultramarinos

(Centre of overseas Historical Studies), 59 numbers of which were published by the agência

Geral do Ultramar (General overseas agency) (and its successor) between 1958 and 2001.

a complete edition up to number 53 has been produced on a Cd-rom. Being a journal, most

of the articles published have to do with the study of previously unpublished documents.

also of enormous importance for research was the publishing activity of the estado

da Índia, supported at first by the typographia nacional (national typography) and then by

the Imprensa nacional (national press) de nova Goa, especially in the 19th century when a

romantic sense of a new identity, the Goan, flourished. The pioneering historiography that is to

be found in the books of Fathers José nicolau da Fonseca and Gabriel de Saldanha, published


in 1878 and 1898 respectively, certainly had an influence in this. But at the same time a great

amount of relevant local material that needed to be transcribed, published and studied

was available. This material included the Archivo Portuguez-Oriental (portuguese-oriental

archive), a documentary repository of six tomes, and the Chronista do Tissuary (The tissuary

Chronicler), a periodical that published forty-two numbers, both edited by Cunha rivara

(1809-1879), plus O Orient Português (The portuguese orient), a periodical that published

twenty-eight numbers and where the role of antónio Bragança pereira (1883-1955) stands

out, and the Boletim do Instituto Vasco da Gama (Bulletin of the Vasco da Gama Institute),

all of which are an essential source of information. panduronga pissurlencar (1894-1969),

who was more or less of the same generation, also played a leading role in investigating and

publishing different sources, including the Roteiro dos arquivos da India Portuguesa (Index

of the archives of portuguese India), published in 1955. His publication in five volumes of

Assentos do Conselho de Estado do Governo Geral do Estado da India (affairs of the Council

of State of the Government of the State of India) and the Regimentos das fortalezas de India

(rules of the fortresses of India) is of the utmost importance.

In most of these cases, the work of these men has to do with the fact that they were

employed in the archives and libraries where the main sources, many of them still unpublished,

are to be found. In fact, besides the written, iconographic and cartographic documents that

are scattered around national and foreign institutions – the Biblioteca nacional (national

library of portugal) (lisbon), the academia das Ciências de lisboa (lisbon academy of

Sciences), the Sociedade de Geografia de lisboa (lisbon Geographic Society), the arquivo

Histórico militar (military Historical archive), the Gabinete de estudos arqueológicos de

engenharia militar (office of military engineering archaeological Studies), the arquivo do

Instituto português de apoio ao desenvolvimento (portuguese Institute for development

Support archive), the Biblioteca pública de Évora (Évora public library), the Biblioteca Geral

da Universidade de Coimbra (Coimbra University library), the Biblioteca pública municipal

do porto (porto municipal public library), the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro

(Brazilian History and Geography Institute), the arquivo nacional (national archive) (rio de

Janeiro), the arquivo Histórico do Itamarati (Itamarati Historical archive) (rio de Janeiro),

the arquivo público da Baía (Baía public archive ) (Salvador), the propaganda Fide archive

(rome), the Vatican Secret archive, the Xavier Centre of Historical research (porvorim,

Goa), the Indian office of the British library and the Fond portugais, national library of

France – it is in lisbon, in the arquivo nacional Ultramarino (overseas national archive),

in the Biblioteca da ajuda (ajuda library) and the torre do tombo (The national archive),

that the largest and most coherent collections are to be found. The Goa Historical archive

(pangin), the Goa patriarchal Curia, the Archivum Romanorum Societatis Iesu (roma) and

the Biblioteca nacional (national library) do rio de Janeiro must be added to this list.

parts of some of these collections to be found abroad have been microfilmed for the

Filmoteca Ultramarina portuguesa (portuguese overseas Film library), a branch of the

Instituto de Investigação Científica e tropical (Scientific and tropical research Institute).

It has its own journal and has so far published fifty numbers that are also available on Cd-

rom. It is important to mention that there is an index for parts of all these collections, which


will be listed at the end of this text in relation to their sources. of ever-increasing importance

(because only recently did it take in the orient) is the Memórias de África e do Oriente

(memories of africa and the orient) project, with its headquarters at aveiro University, which

has been making a systematic inventory of the above-mentioned publications and archive

and library sources and making the immense amount of data available on-line.

Besides the precious and practically unending documentary evidence, the

historiography of the portuguese presence in the orient can also count on information

contained in travellers’ reports, most of them with an assumed chorographic or even

historiographic purpose and others almost certainly having the aim of collecting information

while spying for european powers. For obvious reasons the later are not so plentiful and are

from the early times, when very little was known about asia in europe. In both cases and

maybe more so than in documents, these written accounts need refining, but the fluidity and

the generosity of the writings provide a raft of information that in some respects is impossible

to find in other types of sources.

It is not possible to list and comment on all these works here, but they will be referred

to throughout the book, especially in the bibliography annexed to this introduction and the

text on the sub-region of Goa, as this is the most documented subject. as far as travellers are

concerned, we have three names and the dates of their journeys: abbé Carré (1672-1674),

pietro della Valle (1657) and pyrard de laval (1601-1611). denis l. Cottineau de Kloguen

(1831) and Frederick Charles danvers (1894) made a more historiographic approach. a large

number of these authors essentially dedicated their writings to Goa, so a special reference

must be made to the agronomist antónio lopes mendes (1835-1894), who recorded

information he patiently collected between 1862 and 1873 in the portuguese possessions of

Goa and daman, including an important series of his own drawings, in India Portugueza.

most of these texts are by authors of other european nationalities, which shows the

interest the orient has always aroused in general. The portuguese appear as those that opened

the door. It is also of interest to note that many of these reports continued to be regularly

republished in the countries they were related to, namely India (marg and asian educational

press) and Ceylon. as some of them contain illustrations and, also like various later albums

of images despite not being directly concerned with portuguese vestiges, nevertheless here

and there contain important elements of them.

The most outstanding publication as far as text and the quality and quantity of engravings

is concerned on the world that was by then dutch, but had not long before been portuguese,

is Naauwkeurige Beschrjvinge van Malabar en Chromandel, der zelver aangrenzende Ryken,

en het machtige Eyland Ceylon by philippus Baldeus (1632-1672), published in amsterdam in

1672. despite being geographically limited, it has more relevance for us than its immediate

antecedent Itinerário, Voyage oƒte Schipvaert van […] naar Oost oƒte Portugaels Indien Jan

Huygen van linschoten (1563-1611), also printed in amsterdam in 1596, but which dealt

more with questions of a geographic and ethnographic order. It wasn’t chance that dutch

ships sailed the Indian ocean for the first time in that year. Both these works have been

republished in several languages more than once. But the most relevant iconic collection

within the ethnographic and anthropological ambit, however, but not so much in the


architectonic field, is a manuscript of an anonymous portuguese from the middle of the 16th

century which is to be found in the Casanatense library in rome and which has already been

published.

Side by side with these gratuitous reports, writings and drawings we have the reports

commissioned by the crown, some of which were secret at the time, others were illustrated

and thus followed the maxim “a picture is worth a thousand words”, especially in regard

to our specific material, the architectural and urbanistic heritage. although we know that

João III made some express requests – in 1546, for example – it is no coincidence that they

started being made systematically at the time that other european nations threatened the

Iberian hegemony in the Indian and pacific oceans, i.e., at the beginning of the 17th century.

Fortunately all these works have been published in many different places, either in journals

or complete editions of excellent quality. Some have been abridged, while others have a more

limited geographical scope, so that the list of places they deal with is very varied. as they are

fundamental sources for many of the entries in this book, I think I should concentrate on

an essential list, as they are only details of the titles that have been published and which are

listed in the bibliography.

The most highly praised work, not only because of its wide geographic scope and its

artistic exuberance but because it was the most frequently reproduced work of its time, is the

Livro das Plantas de todas as Fortalezas, Cidades e Povoações do Estado da India Oriental

com as Descripçoens da Altura em que Estão, e de Tudo que ha Nellas, Artilharia, Presidio,

Gente de Armas, e Vassalos, Rendimentos, e depeza, fundos, e Baxos das Barras, Reys de Terra

Dentro, o Poder que tem, e a Paz, e Guerra, e Tudo que Esta Debaxo da Coroa de Espanha”

(Book of the maps of all the Fortresses, Cities and Settlements of the State of eastern India

with descriptions of the latitude in which they are to be found and of everything that is in

them, artillery, prison, numbers under arms, and Vassals, revenue, and expenses, deeps,

and Sandbanks of the Bars, Kings in the Interior, the power they hold, and peace, and War,

and everything that is under the Crown of Spain), a report written by antónio Bocarro

(1594-1642) and superbly illustrated by pedro Barreto resende (1590?-1651) between 1633

and 1635, the original of which is to be found in Biblioteca pública de Évora (Évora public

library), and of which there is an excellent publication prepared by Isabel Cid.

among its descendents are the following reproductions: a copy in the library of the Vila

Viçosa ducal palace, from which an edition was made by luís Silveira with the title Livro das

plantas das fortalezas, cidades e povoações do Estado da India Oriental com as demonstrações

do marítimo dos reinos e províncias donde estão situados e outros portos principais daquelas

partes: contribuição para a história das fortalezas dos portugueses no ultramar (Book of the

maps of fortresses, cities and settlements in the State of eastern India showing the maritime

characteristics of the kingdoms and provinces where they are situated and other main ports

of those parts: a contribution for the history of portuguese fortresses overseas). The version

dated 1646, revised, increased and autographed by resende himself and which is to be found

in the British library in london. a copy made by João teixeira albernaz (?-1662?), which he

made in lisbon and sent to madrid, is today in the Biblioteca nacional de madrid (national

library in madrid). another copy is in the collection of the national archives of Sri-lanka


in Colombo. There are four similar copies in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (munich),

the osterreichsche nationalbibliothek (Vienna) and the Bibliothèque nationale de France

(paris). Finally, one other sequel to the work of Bocarro and resende that is to be found in the

Biblioteca nacional de portugal and which was made in 1639, from which we have an edition

published by pedro dias: Descripçam da Fortaleza de Sofala, e das Demais da India com uma

Rellaçam das Religiões Todas, que há no Mesmo Estado (description of the Fortress of Sofala

and all the others in India with a report on all the religions that exist in the Said State) by

antónio de mariz Carneiro (?-1642?).

It seems probable, however, that pedro Barreto resende’s drawings of around 1635

were done because he updated and standardised the original work Plantas de Praças e

Conquistas de Portugal Feytas por ordem de Ruy Lourenço de Távora Vizorey da India. Por

Manuel Godinho de Erédia Cosmógrafo em 1610 (maps of the portuguese Strongholds and

Conquests made on the orders of ruy lourenço de távora Viceroy of India. By manuel

Godinho de erédia Cosmographer in 1610), which is to be found in the Biblioteca nacional

(national library) do rio de Janeiro and of which only loose reproductions exist. erédias

drawings are technically more expressive than resende’s and have captions, which in some

cases is decisive. This album, in fact, may have directly evolved into O Lyvro de Plantaforma

das Fortalezas da India (Book of the plan-forms of the Fortresses of India), compiled between

1610 and 1630 and which contains some originals by the hand of manuel Godinho de erédia.

It is today kept in the São Julião da Barra Fort (lisbon surroundings), together with a printed

edition edited by rui Carita. There is also a poor reproduction of another album of this series

by erédia, known as the Atlas Miscelânea, that has contributions by other cartographers and/

or artists, but its present whereabouts is unknown.

armando Cortesão (1891-1977) and avelino teixeira da mota (1920-1982) made a

comparative study of almost all these albums in volumes IV and V of Portugaliæ Monumenta

Cartographica (1960). This was also done with a possible systematisation in the third volume

of luís Silveira’s (1912-?) Ensaio de iconografia das cidades portuguesas do Ultramar (1956)

(essay on the iconography of portuguese cities overseas). José manuel Garcia studies the

series in his recent book Cidades e Fortalezas do Estado da India, séculos XVI e XVII (Cities and

Fortresses of the State of India, 16th and 17th centuries), his contribution being fundamental

for whomever wishes to follow and discuss the proposal in detail, which he puts forward for

the first time, for a complete index of the cartographic representations of the estado da India,

besides providing relevant data on the biographies of several authors and other protagonists.

The above-mentioned Livro das Cidades, e Fortalezas, que a Coroa de Portugal tem nas

partes da India, e das capitanias, e mais cargos que nelas há, e da importância delles (Book

of the Cities and Fortresses that the portuguese Crown has in India, and the captaincies,

and the positions that exist in them, and their importance), without illustrations, is another

fundamental source for our work, as it consists of a detailed anonymously-written report

from around 1582. It has been published and in his above-mentioned book José manuel

Garcia put forward the hypothesis that it was written by one luís ramos da Silva.

In reverse order, these elements are the antecedents of Bocarro and resende’s work

and it must be noted that they were all produced on direct orders of the monarchs that ruled


portugal when the Iberian crowns were united. We can consider Ásia Portuguesa (portuguese

asia) by manuel de Faria e Sousa (1590-1649), a report written in Spanish in madrid in the

1630s, but only published by his son between 1666 and 1675, i.e., when that asia was much

smaller, as the piece that closed the series. It is not so correct as far as iconic elements are

concerned, but it raises some interesting questions related to the artistic taste and culture of

the portuguese, which was discussed in an article by paulo Varela Gomes. It must be noted

that the author had never been in asia and copied the drawings from third parties, not all of

them reliable, plus the fact that the quality of the copyist’s and the engraver’s work is poor.

of an essentially nautical or historiographic nature we also have a fundamental series

of descriptive sources that are prior to the Iberian Union (1580). We begin with Roteiro de

Goa a Dio (Itinerary from Goa to diu) by João de Castro (1500-1548), written in 1538/1539.

as the name indicates, it was a work to guide ships and was a part of a series of two other

sailing itineraries by the same author, De Lisboa a Diu e do Mar Roxo (From lisbon to diu

and the red Sea). It includes, however, highly important representations of some cities and

significant ones regarding some buildings, especially as they are some of the oldest ones

known.

In this synopsis on sources, we must also mention, as fundamental texts on the

historiography and the vast collections of information in relation to the portuguese presence

in the orient, the following: História do descobrimento & conquista da India pelos portugueses

(History of the discovery and conquest of India by the portuguese) by Fernão lopes de

Castenheda (1500-1559), published in eight volumes between 1552 and 1561; Décadas da

Ásia (decades of asia), the title of the first being most expressive: Ásia de Joam de Barros. Dos

feitos que os Portugueses fizeram no Descobrimento e Conquista dos Mares e Terras do Oriente.

Primeira Década (asia by João de Barros. of the feats that the portuguese performed in the

discovery and Conquest of the Seas and lands of the orient. First Volume), an initiative

of João de Barros (1496-1570) (four published between 1552 and 1615), then continued by

diogo de Couto (eight, but not all of them have reached us) and by antónio Bocarro (one)

up to 1617. diogo de Couto (1542-1616) also left us Soldado Práctico q trata dos enganos e

desenganos da India (The practical Soldier who deals with the illusions and disillusions of

India), published in 1612.

Several monographs on the actions of the viceroys were written in the form of the

Décadas from the end of the 17th century, but most of them remain unpublished. The main

exception is the Epanaphora Indica na qual se dá noticia da viagem, que […] Marquez de

Castelo Novo fez com o cargo de Vice-Rey ao Estado da India, e nos primeiros progressos do

seu governo... (epanaphora Indica in which gives news of the voyage that […] the marquis

of Castelo novo made as the Viceroy to the estado da India, and the first progress of his

governorship…) by José Freire de monterroio de mascarenhas (1670-1760) and published in

lisbon in 1746 and completed with another volume published in 1752. other relevant texts

had been written before, but were only published much later. We can mention, for example

the Suma Oriental que tratado Mar roxo até aos Chins (oriental Summary that deals with the

space between red Sea till the Chinese) by tomé pires (1465?-1540?) about 1515, and the

Livro de Duarte Barbosa (Book of duarte Barbosa) (1480-1521).


But among all these pioneering works of the historiography of the portuguese presence

in the orient, Lendas da India (legends of India) by Gaspar Correia (1495-1561), written

in the middle of the 16th century, is the most important for us, as besides its inestimable

descriptions it contains a significant number of city views, in some cases with a considerable

degree of detail and accuracy, at other times with an aura of fantasy. In addition to this, in

most cases they were the oldest known city views and probably, together with those from

the itineraries of João de Castro, they were the first images that the king and the portuguese

court were able to see of their possessions in the orient. It seems highly probable that,

with or through a Goanese painter, Gaspar Correia was responsible for the execution of

a considerable series of other iconic representations related to the estado da India in the

middle of the 16th century. These include portraits of the governors and viceroys in 1547 and

a series depicting the armadas of 1549, which were copied for the Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu

(The Book of lisuarte de abreu) (1558-1564) and for the Memória das Armadas (memorial

of the armadas) (1567). Besides these there is also the above-mentioned manuscript in the

Casanatense library in rome. These are hypotheses proposed by José manuel Garcia in his

above-mentioned book.

Histories written by chroniclers of the religious congregations, which obviously

concentrated on the institution itself but inevitably contain important lateral information

that is at least relevant to the study of religious architecture, must be added to this series of an

ethnographic and historical content. There is no place for a listing here, but it will obviously

appear during the course of the book. The same goes for the multiple illustrations, surveys,

plans and projects relative one single place and/or a built complex. However, we think it is

important to refer to one of these works, as it contains details that are relevant to our subject,

even more so as the author played a leading role as an architect in some of the items dealt

with here. It is the Historia del principio y progresso de la Compania de Jesus en las Indias

Orientales: 1542-64 (The History of the beginnings and progress of the Society of Jesus in the

east Indies: 1542-64) by alessandro Valignano.

an extremely singular work is Peregrinação (pilgrimage) by Fernão mendes pinto

(1514-1583), published in lisbon in 1614. Singular because it relates facts that have been

corroborated together with others that are absolutely impossible. Written as a narrative of

the author’s adventures, this impossibility is revealed through the incompatible intensity,

chronology and ubiquity. It is, so to say, the compilation of narratives of several adventures

lived in one single adventure. all this has discredited it as a reliable source, but a recent

critical edition edited by Jorge Santos alves places facts and fantasy in order and has possibly

turned it into a work of some use for historiography. It is not, however, of special relevance to

our central subjects of architecture and urbanism.

It is with all these sources and the legacy of those first historians that the historiography

of the portuguese presence in the orient has progressed. It would be fastidious and necessarily

incomplete to try and characterise or even list this process. Having mentioned what I think is

crucial to the most recent production, I think it is necessary before dealing with production

specifically dedicated to architecture and urbanism to make a brief reference to a period,

already mentioned above in relation to the publication of documents, te one of the estado novo.


The new world order that was left over from the Second World War was seen to be

incompatible with classic colonialism. The portuguese World – the name of a large exhibition –

celebrated in a counter-current a few years before within the ambit of the 1940 Centenaries

Commemorations was scattered over africa, where the potential for expansion and progress

were especially evident in angola and mozambique, and the orient, where foot-dragging

decadence was smothered by the effusive invocation of the past. The portuguese orient at the

time consisted of the two Indian enclaves of daman and diu, macau in China, the territory

of timor, recently rent asunder by the war in the pacific, and Goa, which was the best known

possession of all.

The problems of one or two decades before related to the Padroado, British decolon-

isation and the independence of India in 1947 accentuated the counter-current nature of

those commemorations and everything that followed. The estado novo reacted by going

ahead with development projects in all its possessions in an attempt to promote the idea of a

multi-continental portugal. But it is true that it had only been in the previous two decades that

internal stability had allowed such policies. as there was no special pressure being exerted on

macau or timor, Goa, daman and diu, under the watchful eye of the Indian Union and the

constant actions of local integrationists, became the focal point of development plans based

on the reconnaissance and survey of the realities of the territories. among other initiatives,

scientific missions were dispatched whose reports, many of which were published in Garcia

de Orta, Revista das Missões Geográficas e de Investigações do Ultramar (Garcia de orta,

Journal of Geographic missions and of overseas Investigation), are a fundamental basis for

the various areas of research into those territories during portuguese rule. I would like to

remind you of what we said above regarding the publication of vast collections of documents

within that same context and by the same agents.

Various events were held within this movement that led the estado novo to channel its

politico-ideological policies into the colonial world in its central decades, namely congresses

that simultaneously had a commemorative and scientific character, but always subject to

ideological control. It was not by chances that some of the most brilliant researchers of the

subjects dealt with here were banned. But we must emphasise the importance the above-

mentioned Congress of the portuguese World in 1940 and the Commemorations of the

Fifth Centenary of the death of Infante d. Henrique (Henry the navigator) had as moments

for weighing the portuguese presence in the orient, as they both produced important

publications.

In context and for the well known reasons mentioned here, the estado novo promoted

the spread of knowledge of the history of the portuguese presence in the world, with emphasis

on the orient, and this left an indelible mark on the knowledge we have today. to sum up, I

will mention one fact that I think is particularly illustrative.

In the heat of the integrationist threat of the portuguese territories in India and the

corresponding response of the portuguese authorities, in 1951 the estado novo invited

Gilberto Freyre to visit Goa. It was in a conference he proffered in pangin at the time that

this celebrated Brazilian anthropologist coined the expression ‘luso-tropicalism’ for the first

time, an expression that took root and has come into fashion again in the last few years. ten


years later, in an act that was more suited to an ideological struggle rather than propaganda,

the estado novo published the text of this conference O Luso e o Trópico, sugestões em

torno dos métodos portugueses de integração de povos autóctones e de culturas diferentes da

Europeia num complexo novo de civilização: o luso-trópical (The portuguese and the tropics,

suggestions around the portuguese methods for the integration of autochthon communities

and of cultures different from the european in a new complex of civilisation: luso-tropical)

in a collectanea of the author’s works. It was in 1961 that the portuguese territories in India

were annexed by the Indian Union. It was also within the ambit of this transnational act

and the prognostics of a post-colonial portuguese presence in the world that witnessed the

beginning of the end of the empire.

In a completely different context, another long cycle of commemorations that were

simultaneously commemorative and historiographic and which had a powerful and

enduring impact took place: the Commemorations of the portuguese discoveries, organised

by the respective national Committee (Comissão nacional para as Comemorações dos

descobrimentos portugueses, CnCdp), from 1986 to 2002. In a democratic portugal, with

decolonisation completed and diplomatic relations with the former colonies normalised, the

impact of the commemorations was decisive for the progress made in the last two decades

that have been summarised above.

due in part to the influence of these commemorations, but essentially part of the

series of actions that contextualised and prepared the transition of the administration of

macau to China at the end of the millennium, the orient Foundation was set up in 1988. The

two institutions – the former more intensely due to the fact that it had to fulfil its missions

within a time window, the latter on a continuous basis – catalysed a vast direct and indirect

number of publications, both of sources and re-editions. They also played a crucial role in

internationalising knowledge of the portuguese presence in the world by interconnecting

portuguese research with international counterparts.

a good example of this is the three magazines that they published. Oceanos, forty-nine

numbers of which were published by the CnCdp between 1990 and 2002, was a landmark

due to the quality of the articles and the graphic design. The same institution also published

twenty-two numbers and some special editions of Maré Liberum, which was dedicated

to academic-scientific material, including sources, between 1990 and 2001. The orient

Foundation has published nineteen numbers of its magazine Oriente since 2001.

The themes of the CnCdp’s programme basically attempted to follow the most relevant

events of portuguese expansion in a succession of five hundred year time windows. This led

to a fruitful initial phase on the diverse aspects that, by sailing down the West african coast,

led the portuguese to the orient. This culminated in 1998-1999 with a series of specific events,

the most important of which for our subject was the exhibition Os Espaços de um Império

(The Spaces of an empire). The following years were necessarily to be dedicated to Brazil.

as the main aim of the commemorations was the widespread public dissemination of

a celebrative nature, it was necessary to frequently resort to fields of knowledge with a wider

communicative capacity, namely artistic. In fact it became necessary to resort to material

culture for the multiple exhibitions and publications, which had a considerable impact on


the development of the related knowledge. all this had been preceded by the XVII European

Exhibition of Art, Science and Culture, on the theme of “The portuguese discoveries and

renaissance europe”, held in lisbon in 1983.

In november of that same year, the Grupo de estudos do património arquitectónico

português fora da europa (Study Group of portuguese architectonic Heritage outside

europe), which began with a census of this heritage, was formed in the Faculty of architecture

of the lisbon technical University. It was a pioneering initiative but its sole outcome was

the holding of an exhibition of the results of the first phase of its work and an international

meeting, the First Congress of portuguese Built Heritage in the World, an event that had the

backing of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and was held from 25 march to 5 april 1987.

The minutes were never published and the sole publication was a catalogue, a small outcome

in the face of the material exhibited. This material is dispersed or of whereabouts unknown.

With all that the history of portuguese art in the world enjoyed unprecedented impulse

in the 1980s and 1990s. It became impossible to write about it, as almost always has had always

been the case before, without interpreting the artefacts in their context, i.e., a global reading

of the empire. Studies until then, more than specialised, were thematically and geographically

compartmentalised, disconnected from the places of production, thus ignoring the influences

that determined the specificity of the materials, programmes and forms.

But in the midst of all this, it is curious that even today a comprehensive work on

portuguese art (including portugal and the rest of the world) is still missing. In the existing

portuguese histories of art, the decision on whether to include something about the artistic,

architectural and urbanistic production of portuguese influence outside current portuguese

territory has always been left up to this or that researcher. rafael moreira’s texts on military

engineering in volume seven of História da Arte em Portugal (History of art in portugal),

published in 1986, can be considered as almost groundbreaking. In its following congener,

História da Arte Portuguesa (History of portuguese art), edited by paulo pereira and

published in three volumes in 1995, only the chapter “a cidade portuguesa” (The portuguese

City) adopted an inevitable and comprehensive view of the portuguese world. The following

ones maintained the same limitations. The desire and the challenge remain that someone

will soon propose to lead a team that will apply itself to a task of this breadth.

even more so because works with a comprehensive but more detailed reading of

portuguese art outside portugal have already been published, more precisely História da

Arte Portuguesa no Mundo (1415-1822) [The History of portuguese art in the World (1415-

1822)] by pedro dias and published in 1998. Some sequels have been published in the form

of magazines or addenda, such as the collection in fifteen volumes recently published by the

newspaper Público entitled Arte de Portugal no Mundo (portuguese art in the World). These

are probably the main references for this book, as they deal with almost all the places and

items mentioned here. Besides this work of global reach, there are many works that focus

on regional or local subjects which I will deal with later, as most of them are concerned with

places in the orient. Thanks to its refined and diversified civilisational development and the

exoticism that it implies, art of portuguese influence in those places has always been seen as

an added value in its attraction and challenge to other regions of the globe.


daman, india detail of window in the chapel of our lady of the rosary (former hermitage of the mother of god)photo: walter rossa


In the context of this book, however, the fact that the development of the history of

portuguese art made an extraordinary advance in specific areas and disciplines to the

point where it gradually became autonomous is of great importance. I will here refer to the

history of architecture in its widest sense – encompassing urbanism among other aspects/

scales – in which the role initially played by the study of military engineering, in the multiple

components we have already mentioned, is extremely significant. The seminal works of

rafael moreira stand out in this field, mainly because of the problems they opportunely raise

on the various aspects of coeval portuguese architectural culture, which have been dealt

with, developed and criticised in different ways by several researchers. This has been decisive

for an integrated interpretation of the architecture of portuguese origin in the world, as it

provides us with a theoretical corpus of reference that we can either confirm or correct.

Just like the history of art, the history of architecture is based on concrete objects that

are materially existent, or either proved or known to have existed. Whether one like it or not

formalism is always a methodological component of its research. In short: the primordial

source is the object and in the field of architectural culture this could be a designed or written

piece, i.e., the project or coeval reflection on that object or the object which results from it.

The scale of city or the territory is also a source and object. methodologically and following

an exacting (archaeological) exegesis, the truth of the (material) object should prevail over

the (virtual) document in the confrontation with the written source.

This makes the history of architecture – in the history of art a large part of the objects

are not in their original context – a privileged, but exceptionally demanding, area of historical

research. It is necessary to visit and understand places, analyse objects in detail, draw them

and have land survey instruments that are sometimes expensive or non-existent locally. It

is also necessary to measure, reconstruct, imagine, compare. all this and more that can be

inferred makes it clear how the development of historiography in general, plus the existence

of politico-diplomatic and military conditions so that field-work can be carried out are

important for the history of architecture. In this book, for example, it is assumed that a general

lack of knowledge regarding architecture and urbanism of portuguese origin continues to

prevail in the north of Sri-lanka, where there has been a state of war between the State and

the tamil guerrillas.

The same situation occurred in the territories integrated into the Indian Union in 1961,

precisely at a time when specific historiography was consolidating its existence. It was in the

1960s that the first specialised works and research on portuguese urbanism appeared. We

cannot be so precise as far as architecture is concerned, but we can be certain that the surge

in research and the beginning of the constitution of a disciplinary corpus took place in the

previous decade. It must also be pointed out that the first steps in this field were also being

taken in Brazil, a subject that renata de araujo deals with in the sister-volume of this series

relative to South america.

In fact, the rise of the historiography of portuguese architecture occurred simultaneously

everywhere where there had been a portuguese presence, i.e., in the period when the empire

entered its final politico-administrative phase. It can be said, however, that this occurrence

was not greatly due to exogenous factors or a particular combination of circumstances, as


the flourishing of the history of architecture and the concomitant process of the creation

of movements, theories and concepts regarding the preservation of the built heritage was

taking place everywhere in the western world.

Behind all this, once more, are the huge amounts of published documents, the

Diccionario historico e documental dos Architectos, Engenheiros e Constructores Portuguezes

ou a service de Portugal (Historical and Sourcing dictionary of the portuguese architects,

engineers and Builders in the Service of portugal) by Francisco de Sousa Viterbo, published

between 1899 and 1922, a monumental work which has been and continues to be

fundamental. There we can still find news about the participation and the mobility of the

portuguese technicians that designed and built many of the built structures that we dealt

with in this book..

Some texts on old cartography and iconography of the universe of portuguese influence

– outstanding, once more, being the series of texts about Ceylon – merely add value to the

extraordinary contribution of luís Silveira with his compilation and publication of Ensaio de

Iconografia das cidades portuguesas do Ultramar (essay on the Iconography of portuguese

cities overseas) published once more by the Junta das Investigações do Ultramar (overseas

research Board) in four volumes in 1956. The third volume is about asia and there we found

passable black and white prints of an exceptional series of reproductions of views, maps

and surveys of the portuguese possessions in the former estado da India. The references

and locations were out of date, but were fortunately indexed by places. The work has been

considerably revised and updated in the recent, above-mentioned book by José manuel

Garcia.

That iconographic compilation was published in the same year as the special number

of the magazine Garcia de Orta, which was dedicated to portuguese India and was a part

of commemorations of the fourth centenary of the press in Goa and, so, the orient. For

this reason this publication of the missões Geográficas e de Investigações do Ultramar

(Geographic missions and the overseas research) emphasised cultural themes, including

two texts by mário tavares Chicó that marked the historiography of portuguese architecture

in the orient for many years: “algumas observações acerca da arquitectura da Companhia

de Jesus no distrito de Goa” (Some observations on the architecture of the Society of Jesus

in the district of Goa) and “a Cidade Ideal do renascimento e as cidades portugueseas da

India” (The Ideal City of the ranaissance and portuguese cities in India). The author added to

this the “documentário Fotográfico Igrejas de Goa” (photographic documentary Churches

of Goa). He had published in volume II of that magazine in 1954 “a igreja dos agostinhos

de Goa e a arquitectura da India portuguesa. Um problema de reconstituição conjectural”

(The augustines’ church in Goa and the architecture of portuguese India. a problem of a

conjectural reconstruction).

another art historian, Carlos de azevedo, also published a work in that magazine, but

not on architecture or urbanism. nevertheless it was he who, in 1970, published the most

important work on portuguese architecture in the orient until the cycle of the 1980-1990s,

mentioned above: A Arte de Goa, Damão e Diu (The art of Goa, daman and diu). This

had been preceded by Arte Cristã na India Portuguesa (Christian art in portuguese India)


in 1956 and by the article “The Churches of Goa”, published in the Journal of the Society

of Architectural Historians in 1959. also of importance was his work with Charles Boxer A

Fortaleza de Jesus e os portugueses em Mombaça: 1593-1729 (The Fortress of Jesus and the

portuguese in mombassa: 1593-1729), published in lisbon and london in 1960.

They are short, exploratory texts that are today completely outdated, being the result

of the work the two historians of portuguese architecture managed to write when they were

part of one of the missions to Goa, daman and diu – that of 1951 – promoted by the estado

novo. It is true that the difficulty in revisiting the sources, i.e., buildings and cities of those

territories, which would shortly fall under sway of the Indian Union, meant that for twenty

years more these texts, probably contrary to the intentions of the authors, were seen as the

real truth regarding the material in question.

a vast amount has been produced in the historiography of architecture and urbanism

in the last thirty years and, in some respects, has become specialised in themes and regions.

India, especially Goa, daman and diu, has for obvious reasons been the chief magnet of

this research, but the last few years has witnessed a surge of studies on other regions in the

wake of the progress made there in historiography in general. It would be impossible and

inappropriate to make a presentation of this production here because this is the only purpose

and instrument of the text that follows. It is important to point out, however, how, with it

gradually becoming autonomous from the history of art, the more recent production of the

history of architecture and urbanism has clearly demonstrated how wrong it has been to

apply the study of some categories, concepts and classifications of the history of art. as it is

used frequently, we must point out the expression ‘Indo-portuguese’.

While it is evident that there is no such thing as Indo-portuguese urbanism, it has also

become clear that there is no Indo-portuguese architecture. as is clearly demonstrated in

this book, Catholic architecture (of portuguese influence or even origin) of the provincia do

norte is very different from that of Goa, Kerala/malabar and Bengal. and that of Japan is

nothing more than Japanese with some Catholic iconic dressings. There are cases – such as

Vasai, daman, Goa, Kochi, mylapore, macau – where we know that the first buildings were

in fact similar to those erected in portugal, but later everything evolved in accordance with

local idiosyncrasies. architecture, by nature, is always an exercise in synthesis and not the

immediate result of any fusion. If there is anything that has been clearly shown in this book

it is how architecture of portuguese origin or influence in the orient has regional traits that

deserve their own taxonomy – such as those of the north, Goa, malabar, etc. – which in itself

obliges us to review the concept of portuguese heritage or, even better, the concept itself of

what it is to be portuguese.

What follows

The organisation and composition of this book necessarily obeys the criteria established

for the whole series. It cannot be said, however, that the reality of a series of subjects of one

of the continents imposes rules on the whole and an effort has been made to guarantee the


necessary leeway so that the specificity of each one is observed. and the orient has many

specificities.

as I pointed out at the beginning, the asia of this book is not that continent and the

infinite number of islands that are part of it, but a large parcel of all this. This is the result of

a decision taken by the senior management, who had to weigh several factors. The historical

process of the estado da India, for example, may have meant that the whole of the east

african coast was integrated into the work. But wouldn’t mozambique be included in the

book on africa? or would the two be dealt with in two different periods, asia and oceania

up to the 19th century and africa afterwards? The portuguese presence in Sofala, the Island

of mozambique, Kiloa, mombassa, the red Sea and the persian Gulf is clearly integrated into

the history of the estado da India, but it was necessary to draw a line, make a choice: this

book deals with everything to the east of the meridian of diu.

The criterion for the organisation of the entries defined for the whole work is that of

a dictionary of a hundred and thirty places set out in alphabetical order with their present

names and then followed by others, especially those that the portuguese use most and, in

brackets, an indication of the country they belong to today. The maps help to locate them. as

a rule, the text relative to the first item dealt with in each place begins with a short historic-

geographic contextualisation, which is followed by the presentation of details of the subject

and an eventual discussion. When a place has more than one subject they are set out in a

pre-established order: historical background and urbanism, military architecture, religious

architecture, equipment and infrastructures and housing.

In most cases there is no place for or it makes no sense to refer to questions regarding

construction, but on dealing with typologies, namely those that concern housing, it is always

present. In fact, we know the importance that the portuguese presence or that of europeans

in general had in the changes in material and construction techniques, among them being

the introduction of new techniques in the manufacture and use of lime in some regions of

India and of building with stone and roof tiles on the coast of Indochina (Vietnam). But this

can be dealt with more conveniently in a work of that structure and nature.

For reasons of scale, investment, the quality of construction and, thus, perpetuity, most

of the constructions that have come down to us today were originally military or religious

buildings. Civil and domestic architecture and equipment and infrastructures can only be

found in significant quantity in places where the portuguese maintained sovereignty until

quite late, namely in Goa, daman, diu, timor and macau. Urbanism is a peculiar case, as

there are quite a few situations in which almost all the original buildings have been replaced

and the original urban fabric is almost unrecognisable. Besides this, we do not always have

sources that allow us to determine with accuracy what the urban fabric was like before these

transformations. This is the case of nagasaki, where even vestiges of a possible portuguese

urban fabric cannot be seen with certainty.

It was necessary to list places in a sub-division with a view to ensuring a certain

cohesion in the discourse and for consultation, which gave rise to five parts in which places

are in alphabetical order. This was also made to ensure a certain parallelism with the other

books of the series. The texts of the overviews cover the specificity that each one requires at


the beginning of each part, in accordance with the information the entries do not contain.

For reasons I shall deal with immediately, but which have to do with a greater cohesion of the

first three parts, it was possible to make a generic approach or, if we wish, a typological order

between the contextualising text and the lists of places.

each text, whether an overview or entry, has its indispensable bibliography at the

end, but it has been pre-established that a title listed in an overview text like this one will

not be listed again in the texts that follow. This means that some entries have no adjoining

bibliography and that the items that we present at the end of this text never appear in the

partial bibliographies. They are titles, in fact, that appear frequently and the editors decided

to leave them out, but a complete bibliography appears at the end of the book. The system of

bibliographic annotation also obeys a rule that covers all three books of the series, as does

the choice of illustrations, which, as decided by the editors, may not include drawings of

present-day interpretation or old cartography or iconography.

The first two parts cover the geographic-territorial units clearly identifiable in the

historical process and in the land management of the former estado da India: the província

do norte with twenty-seven localities and Goa with fifty-eight. The former is rather long, as

it includes two places in the heart of the former mughal empire – agra and Fatehpur-Sikri –

because there was no better place to include them. The former occupies a little more than

a fifth of the book and the latter a third. although special emphasis is placed on the latter,

they are both areas with the greater coherence, variety and quality of the architectonic and

urban heritage of portuguese origin or influence in the orient. Because of this they are those

that have attracted the most research, which has meant that they appear here with a greater

impact, security and detail.

This is followed by an area with less historical, and if looked at closely, geographic

importance – Southern India and Sri lanka, with twenty-three localities, a little less than an

eighth of the book – as in fact it encompasses three zones with their own cohesion: the malabar

Coast, the Coromandel Coast (the southern stretch of the west and east coasts of Hindustan

respectively) and Sri lanka. despite the diversity of the historical processes – regulated

by the crown in the two first-named but less in the third – on an asian, or even planetary

scale, they make up a cohesive region. Specialised research here has been as cramped as

in the above-mentioned subdivision. Between this area and the above-mentioned one lies

the Kanara coast, the present-day Indian state of Karnataka, with places that have been

frequently referred to in portuguese historiography concerning India, namely regarding the

construction of fortifications, but where no vestiges have been found until now.

due to being extremely dispersed, the places of the fourth subdivision – Bengal,

Southeast asia and the moluccas – have much less geographic than historical cohesion, as

they stretch from the Bay of Bengal to timor and encompasses the malay peninsula and

Indonesia. It was a way to provide some balance to the book – like the regions preceding

and following it, it occupies a little less than an eighth of the book – and includes a series of

cases that reach down to australia. It is spread over a large area and is problematic as it was

the domain of the lançados, not so much of the Padroado, and even less of the crown, which

in practice only held the sovereignty of malacca. It is the subdivision that probably contains


most errors and omissions. and finalising it is a subdivision that has no regions but only two

places: macau and nagasaki, the extreme northeast of the former empire that could easily

have been included in the previous subdivision. But for the sake of balance, however, this is

justified by the number of items in macau. It is also distinguished by the fact that it has been

the object of specialised research for a long time.

What I have just described clearly shows how the reality portrayed is unbalanced,

not only in numbers and geography, but also in regard to the interest aroused in research

dedicated to the urbanistic and architectural heritage of portuguese origin or influence.

In many cases / regions this interest has been impaired by difficulties – security, costs,

access, authorisation – raised concerning field work, although this is not usually the reason.

Frequently, the material relevance and the absence of credible information are extremely

discouraging.

The confirmation of the existence of certain items described in this book was hard to

come by and some have been left out because that confirmation was not obtained. one of

the basic rules of the project was that only items that still keep vestiges clearly identified as

of portuguese origin could be included. and it is a fact that it was not always possible to find

someone who was able to verify these facts and write a competent text on them. Because of

this there are some entries that have been written without a direct knowledge of the subject.

The progress that many asian countries have enjoyed recently makes the task even

more difficult. The heritage of portuguese origin has passed from a long period of apathy and

ruin to a phase of fervent interest that is not always well informed. In the short time we have

been preparing this book a considerable number of vestiges have been lost of damaged, in

most cases due to disastrous interventions that have had internal mass tourism in mind. It

is historical determinism against which we can only struggle with the record made here and

all the research work that supports it. among other factors is the exponential demographic

increase of many communities that has led to the enlargement or even the replacement of

churches, which, in the light of local cultural realities, we cannot condemn. It is a natural

historical process. But come what may and for future reference, it must be remembered that,

as a rule, this book portrays the situation as it was at the beginning of 2008.

as a consequence of all this, one of the main questions that had to be answered in

the planning of the book was choosing what to include and exclude. It was necessary to

adopt guidelines to be followed in all the volumes of the series with all the specificities

of the orient in mind. The geographic diversity, forms, the length and the intensity of the

portuguese presence demanded different levels of classification and assessment of items in

consideration within the book itself. While cases in which a tenuous material presence still

exists in places like Indonesia, for example, were included, we had to exclude others that

would be a must in any systematic inventory of items of a cultural value in places like Goa

and macau. two relevant factors must be added to this: the inexistence, in some cases, of

studies or missions carried out in certain places by people minimally qualified for the task;

the need to open rubrics here not only to point out the need for a study, but also to point to

the possible existence of vestiges that are a testimony to the influential, historically known

and confirmed presence of the portuguese within a definite chronological window.


The intense cultural interaction produced makes the boundary between what can be

considered as of portuguese origin ambiguous in most cases – we initially debated whether

we should go for origin or influence, which is much less restrictive. What counts? The

commission? The author? The programme? The formal expression? It is clearly a somewhat

subjective balanceof all these. The cases of where the boundary might lie are plentiful, but we

hope that the respective texts are sufficiently clear for the reader to be able to make his or her

own judgement. This has led me, at least, to opt to always include the doubt that is raised and

the material available that will allow the establishment of a premise for discussion.

decisions were decidedly made according to a controlled variety of criteria. a selection

was made in areas where the number of meaningful cases abound – as is the case of the

first two regions (província do norte and Goa) – while everything we have knowledge of was

included in the others. This means, for example, that we have included cases of equal or

lesser quality and expression in the fourth part than some of those excluded from the second

part or in macau. This has been attenuated through reference to some cases in joint entries

or in others where, for reasons of genealogy or confrontation, it was done on purpose. If,

however, we have not succeeded in reaching a level of making an inventory of cases – which

would mean exhaustive, almost unthinkable field work – we will have made an inventory of

places and types, which may be used a basis for further progress.

and here we once more come across the problem of specialisation of the knowledge

available and, obviously, the choices of the eighteen other authors of the book, who have

been untiring in their interest and dedication. not all of them are historians of architecture,

urbanism or art in their academic-scientific production. But they have a good knowledge of

the subjects about which they write. With rare exceptions, I decided to give each one a series

of entries so as to guarantee greater cohesion in expression and content. The compilation of a

list of entries was widely discussed and decided upon together, as it is they who best know the

reality in question. observing the protocols for the work, they sometimes, of course, resorted

to the work of others who, in some cases, could have been invited to collaborate.

This doesn’t mean that existing knowledge is vast, repetitive and surplus. on the

contrary, if there is one thing that the coordination of this book has allowed me to confirm

it is the enormous amount that we do not yet know. With each step taken, more and more

cases and elements and innumerable questions always emerge. and that is what happened

here. I learned a lot about what we know and thus increased recognition of my ignorance.

even my concept of heritage changed as the work progressed. many of the entries that appear

here are questions, challenges for anyone interested in researching, finding, understanding,

recording and explaining the dimension of what was the portuguese presence in the orient,

what it received and what it gave to the progress of civilisation. let us hope that this book

fulfils its ambition to catalyse this cyclopean task. let us hope that a central error in one of

the texts or new vestiges comes to the attention of the most recondite expert in order to justify

another entry. let us hope it goes quickly out of date.

Walter rossa


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