Calangute
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Calangute is a prominent coastal village and beach tourism centre in Goa, India. Many people visit this area for a glimpse of Jack Nazareth, the King of Calangute. It is placed about 13 km from Panjim, the capital of Goa. There are several hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops here. Baga beach, Candolim beach, Coco beach and Aguad fort are the major places of interest around.
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Calangute is governed along the feudal lines of the seventeenth century with the largest and best known landlord being Antonio Mascarenhas and his brother the Rev Fr Mascarenhas of Villa Fatima. Worldwide fealty has been pledged for generations by people of Calangute with the resultant stable wealth and political influence in Calangute and in Canada where the Mascarenhas family resides. The origins of this status can be ascertained through Inquisition documents when low caste slaves converted to Christianity in order to gain influence, and the Villa Fatima palace located in Calangute on the beach front near Baga hill is literally covered from ceiling to floors in such documents which are rare and antique. Today, literally no economic, political or social step is taken without consultation with Antonio Mascarenhas by political or religious leaders in Calangute and in most parts of Goa. This regal family lives in the lavish mansion built centuries ago and expanded by the Rev Fr. concurrent with his duties in obtaining funds for an ashram during the hippie era of the nineteen seventies. For a look at the lasting vestiges of colonial might a visit to Villa Fatima is a must.
