India Guide
Goa
Panjim
Stacked around the sides of a lush terraced hillside at the mouth of the River Mandovi, PANJIM was for centuries little more than a minor landing stage and customs house, protected by a hilltop fort and surrounded by stagnant swampland. It only became state capital in 1843, after the port at Old Goa had silted up and its rulers and impoverished inhabitants had fled the plague. Though it town never emulated the grandeur of its predecessor upriver, Panjim expanded rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, without reaching the unmanageable proportions of other Indian capitals.
After Mumbai, or even Bengaluru (Bangalore), its uncongested streets seem refreshingly parochial. Sights are thin on the ground, but the backstreets of the old quarter, Fontainhas, have retained a faded Portuguese atmosphere, with colour-washed houses, Catholic churches and shopfronts sporting names such as De Souza and Pinto.
Some travellers see no more of Panjim than its noisy bus terminal – which is a pity. Although you can completely bypass the town when you arrive in Goa, either by jumping off the train or coach at Margao (for the south), or Mapusa (for the northern resorts), or by heading straight off on a local bus, it's definitely worth spending time here – if only a couple of hours en route to the ruined former capital at Old Goa.
The area around Panjim attracts far fewer visitors than the coastal resorts, yet its paddy fields and wooded valleys harbour several attractions worth a day or two's break from the beach. Old Goa is just a bus ride away, as are the unique temples around Ponda, an hour or so southeast, to where Hindus smuggled their deities during the Inquisition.
Read more ▼
- Practical Information ▼
- Sight(s) ▼