The Palace In The Jungle - Adventures in Goa & Beyond

Benaulim Beach, January 2015

Namaste, one and all! After getting home late last night I'm currently dividing my time between loading the washing machine, lavishing a month's worth of fuss on the felines and ploughing through the hundreds of photos we took on our travels.

Our cosy guest house

As always India wove her magic and we fell in love with her all over again. The Air India flight was smooth with unlimited gin, a sari-clad & dazzlingly beautiful cabin crew, deliciously spicy vegetarian food and a plethora of great Indian movies along with some old favourites (watching The Darjeeling Limited for the umpteenth time). On arrival we hailed a taxi to the South Goan village of Benaulim, bagging ourselves a £4.50 a night guest house with no hitches.

As our pasty European skin hadn't seen sun for months we went easy on the sun-bathing for the first few days, opting instead for long walks & exploring, only venturing to the beach in the late afternoon when the intensity of the glorious Goan sunshine had abated. 

Our first adventure took us inland, taking an auto-rickshaw ride along pot-holed roads & rickety bridges past lush paddy fields, palm groves and dense jungle to the sleepy village of Chandor where the magnificent 16th Century Braganza House dominates the dusty market square. Regarded as one of the grandest of Goa's colonial mansions, the facade is over 400 feet in length with an impressive twenty-eight windows.

Built in 1560 for the sons of the wealthy Braganza family, the house is divided into identical halves. Braganza de Perreira was the last knight of the King of Portugal. Menezes Braganza (1879 - 1938) a journalist and freedom fighter, was one of the few Goan aristocrats to openly oppose Portuguese rule. Forced to flee Goa in 1950 the family returned after independence in 1961 to miraculously find the house completely untouched.

On entering, a polished Italian marble staircase led us up to a shady, window-lined veranda, crammed with leafy plants in crumbling terracotta pots. At the top were two imposing wooden doors each with hefty iron bell pulls swinging from the ceiling, we pulled the one on the right and a maid ushered us in. For a donation of 100 rupees each (around £1) we were escorted around by Judith, the current occupant of the West wing. 

  Crammed with the most incredible collection of antiquities, 350 year old Ming vases, ancestral palanquins, 16th century Murano glass chandeliers, Georgian silver platters and cutlery from England, imposing Belgian mirrors, silk covered love seats and Indian rosewood furniture, carved by local craftsmen employed by the family over 400 years ago. There's even an exact replica of the dining table and chairs used at Buckingham Palace commissioned by the family and shipped from Britain over a century ago. In the West wing you'll find India's largest private library, over 5,000 ancient leather bound books encased in glass and rosewood cases.

 The ballroom or Great Salon, the length of the average school hall, has a wonderfully decaying zinc-embossed ceiling and a polished marble floor. The royal thrones at the far end were a gift to the Braganzas from Dom Luis, the 19th Century king of Portugal.

The family receive no help from the government relying entirely on donations from visitors to help maintain the property. Judith explained that possessions spoil easily in the tropical climate of Goa and a team of nine staff have to work seven days a week to keep mould, decay and pests from ruining the house and its contents. 

 There are no alarms, no guards on the door and apparently no insurance either.  Unlike stately homes at home, visitors are welcome to touch, pick up the antiques and to explore cupboards and peep behind closed doors. These Portuguese seafaring chests particularly took my fancy, imaging the treasures they'd have carried across the oceans in their day .

These reception rooms were added in the latter part of the 19th Century. We instantly recognised the Victorian Minton floor tiles, the hallway in our last house had an identical floor.

A smiley maid showed us around the East Wing. 

The perfect spot for breakfast!

 In the East wing you'll find the family chapel. An ornate oratory (the small box you can see in the centre of the altar) enshrines St Francis Xavier's diamond-encrusted toenail. 

We were shown old family photographs of some of the glamorous balls and parties held in this magnificent room over the centuries. 

Even in its current state I'm still more than a little in love with this room!

A palanquin suitable for noblemen.

These stunning mosaic tiled seats were imported from Spain. 

Many old Goan homes have these oyster shell shutters. The pearlised lining casts a pretty glow into the interior while the hard outers filter out some of the intensity of the sunshine, keeping the rooms cooler.

Hope you enjoyed the first instalment of our trip (and Jon's photos). Brace yourselves 'cos there's loads more, we ventured far and wide.

I'll be catching up with the wonderful world of Blogland over the next few days, it'll be a welcome distraction from the 4am jet-lagged wake ups.

See you soon!

If you want to see all our photos of Braganza House click HERE.