Panaji's main church, on top of a small rise in the centre of town, is a textbook example of Portuguese colonial Baroque — a wedding-cake of white-painted stucco rising in three tiers, with twin bell towers and the long zigzag of an open staircase climbing the front of the hill toward the entrance. Built in 1541 (one of the oldest churches in Goa) and substantially rebuilt in 1619, the church functioned as the chapel where sailors arriving in Goa would give thanks for safe passage.
The interior is unexpectedly modest after the elaborate facade: a single nave, a gilded main altar with a 17th-century image of the Virgin, and side altars devoted to Jesus and Our Lady of the Rosary. Open for visitors outside Mass times; the staircase from the front square is the city's most-photographed view.