Sé Catedral de Santa Catarina..

This is the Sé Catedral de Santa Catarina, (aka Se Cathedral) in Old Goa. It’s about 500 years old, the largest church in India and dedicated to Saint Catherine. It’s only fitting then, that I should go there for a sticky beak.

Maybe someone will leave it to me in their Will.

Once upon a time there was a chap named Afonso de Albuquerque who was a Portuguese general and mad Christian. Not mad as in "where I live, the sky is orange" but mad as in mad-keen for a bit of religion. He also fancied himself as a spice trader, so he set about establishing an empire that eventually saw him get involved in a few stoushes over such mundane things as trading routes, religion and who should be the king of the sea. 

Long story short: after a dust up between the Portuguese and a Muslim army, Afonso led the capture of the city of Goa on St Catherine's Day in 1510. He also did a few other things, like making it a chief trading post and giving it a permanent naval base but these things bear no relevance to the church.

Construction of the church began 20 odd years later and took place over the next eight decades. It was named after Saint Catherine to commemorate the day of victory and is now a declared world heritage site.