Houses of GOA

Have you seen a three-storey building standing just on Grinding stones. Yes the houses of Goa museum is one such wonder, an Architectural Icon of Goa made by a famous architect Gerard Da Cunha. The building stands on a three-pillar structure. The central pole and two Indian grinding stones at the corners supporting a building Shaped like a SHIP. This is a private museum with entry fee of Rs.100.

The museum was built in 1996 as a traffic island in between a wide cross road to prevent over-speeding of vehicles. The building is in the shape of a ship occupying less road space. This traffic island has solved a local problem. There is a school on this road, the Nisha play school and Shiksha Niketan. The Traffic island has ensured safety of school kids on this road.

In the three floors the Furnitures of Portugese time are displayed. I saw a palanquin, the two seated chair which would be carried by four people. Ideally called Palki in Hindi and Pallaku in Tamil. The word sounds same in all these languages. The other picture is a coat and hat stand. The wooden hands are the picture holders. Materials used for old Goan architecture are on display such as the wooden columns and decorated Eaves board.

I liked the history of Goan houses and their evolution at the top floor. The indo portuguese houses which is a mix of Raj Angan style of India and Sobrado style of portuguese. The Balcao looks like south Indian home porticos with benches to sit at the entrance of the house.

The Portuguese houses have a technique of placing Oyster shells in the doors and windows instead of glass letting in the sunlight. Its a very unique feature we can see everywhere in Goa.

Then there are these funny cartoon figures of Mario Miranda, a famous cartoonist in India who received Padma Vibhushan. Near Houses of Goa there is the Mario Gallery with lot of souvenirs on sale to take with us the memories of Goa. The Entry ticket taken for Rs.100 can be availed to Buy souvenir in Mario gallery, for Rs.50 discount. I bought a cute key chain of a “woman sitting and selling fish” cartoon. We were received at the museum entrance by a nice guide who explained us all about the architecture, he would also compliment me and my friends as beautiful ladies in front of whom the Ship architecture is not a wonder. Nice sales guy made us buy the Mario Souvenirs! ha ha!!!

The Ship deck structure from the inside of the building looks beautiful. In this Museum I could feel the love of the architect Gerard Da Cunha in the school he built for his wife Nisha, the school is made of reusable materials as you can see in the images. In the Mario Miranda souvenir shop I met Gerard Da Cunha creating a new type of souvenir with pixels giving a glitter board effect for Mario Paintings. I did not know it was him, a very simple man who welcomed us with a hello and a great creator. Fond memories of Goa from this place.