Holy Spirit Church, Margao

Holy Spirit Church, or Espirito Santo Church, in Margao was built in 1564–65 and was the second church in the Salcete region. Once among the wealthiest churches in Salcete, it held a large collection of rare old church art and an 18th-century German pipe organ. The building has bell towers, pulpits, a crucifix and several altars. Into the late 1700s the dead were buried beneath its floor, and rose water and cinnamon and champak leaves were used to mask the smell. A Jesuit college, forerunner of Rachol Seminary, and a 100-bed hospital once stood nearby.

The church faces the Largo da Igreja, a square of more than forty houses with the old municipal hall, a jail and the Cidas Almas Chapel; seventeen people died here in election violence in 1890. On the equinoxes, sunlight passes through an oculus in the facade onto the image of the Holy Spirit, and side windows light statues of Jesus and Mary. The feast of the Immaculate Conception falls on 8 December.