The Church of the Holy Spirit dominates the Largo de Igreja, Margao's central church square, its broad white Baroque facade rising above a double flight of stone steps. Built in 1675 — and rebuilt more grandly after Maratha raids in the 1730s — it is one of the finest Portuguese colonial churches in South Goa, with twin bell towers, a rhythmic play of pilasters and cornices, and an interior of gilt altarpieces and carved wooden panels that surprises visitors expecting something more austere.
The church hosts the feast of the Holy Spirit each year in the weeks before monsoon, drawing Goans from across the south for a procession through the old quarter. On ordinary days it is a quiet place — the broad square outside has the old town hall on one side and a ring of mango trees — but during evening Mass the church fills with the Portuguese-inflected liturgy that has persisted here for three and a half centuries.