Distant liaisons

Recently, during a week in Goa unwinding from city life in Bangalore, I decided to leave my spot on the Candolim beach for a day to search for the last standing remnant of the alleged Croatian (Dubrovnik) colony in Goa. I'd read about it in articles a friend located for me at the Dubrovnik Scientific Library last spring, after some Croatian acquaintances were keen to show me newspaper clippings and pictures of themselves leaning against the whitewashed façade of the São Brás Church in Goa – memorabilia from trips taken years ago.

Croatian indologist Zdravka Matišić stirred up a flurry of interest in Goa within Croatia, and in 1999, a 15-member Croatian delegation flew to Gandaulim to visit the São Brás Church and investigate the possible Croatia-Goa connections. Nine years later, a São Brás priest, Father Orlando Lopez, returned the visit as a special guest of Dubrovnik's annual Festival of St Blaise (celebrated on 3 February, the same date as the Gandaulim Feast of São Brás), where he was given a donation for the renovation of the São Brás Church, collected by the citizens of Dubrovnik and pharmaceutical company Pliva.