Rachol Seminary

Rachol is about 7 kms from the commercial town of Margao, in Salcette taluka. On the top of a small hillock near Rachol and the small village of Raia, lies the famous Seminary surrounded by the remains of a moat of an old Muslim fort and unending vistas of rice fields.

The seminary at Rachol in Goa originally built in 1580 was converted into a Diocesan seminary in 1762. Also one of the earliest printing press that arrived in India from 1616 was housed here which produced Christian religions literature.

The Seminary has a church built in 1576, dedicated to Saint Ignatius Loyola - the founder of the Jesuit order, which remains in excellent condition. Inside the church, there is a uniformed statue of Saint Constantine (the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity), on the richly carved and gilded main altarpiece. It is said that fragments of his bones, brought from Rome in 1782 are enshrined here along with a small glass vial which once contained a little amount of the Saint´s blood.