Seminar to revisit Mumbai’s church art and architecture

Did you know that the heritage cross housed in St Andrew’s Church compound in Bandra (W) once belonged to Santa Anna Church near Bandra station? Yes, indeed.

Santa Anna Church was demolished in 1739 during the Maratha Portuguese war.

While the people of Bandra take pride in her heritage, not much is actually known about the suburb’s religious architecture.

In an attempt to provide insight into the religious history of churches in Bandra and also across Mumbai, the archdiocesan heritage committee is organising a seminar starting June 13 at Mount Carmel’s Church in Bandra (W).

The committee was formed three years ago by Cardinal Ivan Dias after he realised that a lot of church artifacts, gold furniture and church buildings were often being damaged by well-meaning members of the clergy.

“Most of them, under pressure from their congregation, are renovating and making replacements. They are taking out the old flooring and replacing it with ceramic tiles or marble. A lot of old Portuguese altars were removed and given away 30 years ago.

That’s why we stepped in and said no changes will be made to the church without prior permission of the committee and Cardinal Oswald Gracias,” said Fr Warner, coordinator of the committee.

“The idea behind the seminar is to create awareness among clergy and Catholics in Mumbai and various other communities who are interested in church heritage and church art,” said Fr Warner.

The first part of the seminar will focus on the history of the Catholic church in Mumbai, which will be presented by Fr Larry Pereira, who has done an intensive study on the history of Catholic churches in the city. The following segment will include a talk on restoration and renovation by Vikas Dilawari, a conservation architect and member of Mumbai heritage conservation committee.

According to Fr Pereira, the heritage cross at St Andrews Church compound was brought from Santa Anna Church which existed where the present BEST depot at Bandra station is located.

The church was destroyed in 1739 by the English for military reasons as it was on a strategic location — the creek came up to that point then.

“There was a two-year war called the Maratha Portuguese war in 1737-39. The English had nothing to do with it. But the Portuguese asked the English to fight against the Marathas, who agreed on the condition that the church be demolished, because if it was captured by the Marathas, it could be used by them as a fort to attack the English across the creek,” said Fr Pereira.

“As much as we hate the Portuguese, we had to give them military assistance in our own interest,” he added.

The seminar will help highlight other colourful stories about the churches in the city. “This seminar is about the churches in particular but it also aims to make all Mumbaikars aware of the need to conserve religious and secular architecture,” said Fr Pereira.