Basilica of Bom Jesus

Completed in 1605, the Basilica of Bom Jesus is the most visited Christian site in Goa and part of the Churches and Convents of Old Goa UNESCO World Heritage listing. Its façade is exposed laterite stone rather than plastered, unusual for a Goan church, while the interior is richly gilded. The basilica holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary who died in 1552, displayed in a glass-sided silver casket in a side chapel. The relics are exposed publicly roughly once a decade during a major Exposition that draws enormous crowds. An attached Museum of Christian Art has a separate small entry fee.