Chapel of Our Lady of the Mount, Old Goa

This Roman Catholic chapel in Old Goa is dedicated to the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of the Mount. Afonso de Albuquerque, governor of Portuguese India, ordered it straight after the Portuguese captured Goa in 1510, and it was finished in 1519, which places it among the oldest churches in the city. Built of laterite, it follows a Baroque style with Mannerist touches.

From its hilltop the chapel looks out over the Mandovi, and getting up to it is not easy. After the city's decline it fell into ruin, and it stayed that way until 2001, when Fundação Oriente, a Portuguese foundation that keeps up cultural ties between Goa, Daman and Portugal, planned and funded its restoration with the state government. Every November its courtyard hosts the Monte Music Festival.