Basilica of Bom Jesus

UNESCO World Heritage Site: Churches And Convents Of Goa (1986); Minor Basilica Holding The Relics Of St Francis Xavier · Old Goa, Goa

The Jesuit church at Old Goa, completed in 1605, which holds the body of St Francis Xavier, the missionary who died off the coast of China in 1552 and is venerated across Asia. It is the most important of the Churches and Convents of Goa, a World Heritage Site, and a place of pilgrimage for Catholics from India and beyond. The facade is in the baroque style but built of the local laterite, its plaster stripped away long ago, which gives it an unusual dark red-brown colour. Inside is a gilded altar and, in a side chapel, the saint's remains in a silver casket above a marble mausoleum gifted by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Every decade or so the relics are brought down for a public exposition that draws enormous crowds; the most recent ran into early 2025. The feast of the saint on 3 December is the other great day. Around it lie the ruins and churches of Old Goa, once one of the great cities of Asia and abandoned after epidemics: the Se Cathedral, the Church of St Francis of Assisi and the Archaeological Museum, all within a short walk. It is free and still in worship.

Old Goa Road, Bainguinim, Old Goa, Goa, 403402, India

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED; confirm before planning. The usual pattern: the basilica opens daily from early morning (masses first) until early evening, often around 9 am to 6:30 pm for visitors, with shorter access on Sunday mornings while masses run. The ASI Archaeological Museum keeps daytime hours and closes one day a week, usually Friday. Feast week around 3 December and expositions change everything, with crowd control and road closures. Visiting during mass means waiting.

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