The name 'Pilar'

The Monastery of Pilar was built by the Franciscan Fathers who put the Saints of their own order on the altar.

The central figure is Our Lady of Pilar. The tradition says that St. James, an Apostle of Jesus was given Spain to preach the Gospe l, but the work did not progress and he was feeling dejected.

At that moment , the Virgin Mary who was still living in Jerusalem appeared to him, carried by Angels on a column. That pillar is believed to be the same one that is venerated in Saragoza, in Spain today.

Pilar Seminary

Some eight kms from Goa's state capital of Panjim, the hillock called Pilar is both a centre for pilgrims and devotees. But this is also a place with a lot of history and fasinating views.

Pilar seminary was established by the Capuchins in 1613, abandoned after the expulsion fo religious orders mid-way down Portuguese rule, and later restored. The Church of our Lady of Pilar today houses the tomb of Father Agnelo D'Souza, and attracts many pilgrims.

Further up in the complex is the 1950s-style building of the theological college (where most of the photographs have been taken). Believed to be the site of an former temple, the area around Pilar mount is historic.

Govapuri, the former capital of the Kadamba rulers, is believed to be at Goa Velha, at the bottom of the hill. Pottery shards and temple sculpture unearthed from a stone-lined tank in the seminary premises are displayed in the musuem along with other objects .

"Long before Old Goa was the capital of the Portuguese empire in the East, present-day Pilar hillock was the capital of the Kadamba empire and was connected to the sea through a five-kilometre long laterite stone-built port," writes Fr Cosme Jose Costa sfx. Recent and earlier finds in the area include stone age tools of basalt, cup-shaped Roman objects, a terracotta object having Roman influence dating back to 100 AD, and even a Roman coin belonging to the time of Emperor Constantine.

As Dr Nandkumar Kamat says of Goa's Tiswadi islands: "(These areas have seen) the footprints of the Neolithic man; the saffron robes of the Buddhist monks; the rickety ships of the Greeks, Romans, Persians and Arabs in the Gopakapattana harbour; the horses of the Gulf, slaves from Abyssinia; the copper of Cyprus; the pearls of Ceylon; the silk of Kalyani and the cotton and sandlewood of Banavasi." (#)