Gandaulim (Ilhas)

Gandaulim might have been a spice trading post of the Republic of Ragusa in the Middle Ages.[1]

In the annals of 1605, Jakov Lukarević noted that Ragusan merchants invested in decorating a local church.[2] Portuguese traveler Gomes Catão documented the town to have a population of 12,000, where wealthy ladies were carried to the churches by slaves in canopies.[1] Catão also remarked the church to be modeled on an eponymous church of Dubrovnik.[1] These claims have since made to the popular memory of inhabitants of Gandaulim and Ragusans are now credited for the very construction of the church; however, the factual accuracy remains disputed.[1][3][lower-alpha 1]

Some historians have used these arguments to make questionable assumptions about the existence of a Ragusan colony.[2][1][lower-alpha 2] Serbian economic historian Nicholas Mirkovich had lamented in 1943 about the lack of contemporary Ragusan sources to draft a history of their exploits in India.[3]

Interest in the connection was revived in 1999, when Croatian Indologist Zdravka Matišić discovered a reference to ties between Ragusa and Goa by chance while studying Sanskrit texts in India.[1][4][5] That same year, Croatian author Karmen Bašić noted that while nothing definitive could be said about Ragusan arrival and departure from Goa, there was a "substantial body of evidence and sources vouching for Ragusa’s presence" and its role in the global spice trade, though the notion of a colony linked to the Saint Blaise (São Brás) church at Gandaulim remained "somewhat of a mystery".[1]

In 2016, a bridge was constructed on the outskirts of the village, over the canal. This bridge now links the islands of Ilhas de Goa to Cumbarjua.[6][7]

Gandaulim was a site of a historical fortress, which was demolished in the early 21st century for a road expansion project.

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  Gandaulim Fort Entrance Gate
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  Gandaulim Fort Entrance Gate after Demolition
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  Gandaulim Fort Entrance Gate post Demolition