Fontainhas

Fontainhas was laid out in the late eighteenth century by António João de Sequeira, a Goan who had made his fortune in Mozambique, and named after a spring at the foot of the hill, and it kept its shape: narrow lanes running between two-storey houses with overhanging balconies, projecting eaves, oyster-shell windows and internal courtyards, laid out on a slope below the Altinho hill. A local convention, dating from Portuguese rules on repainting after the rains, keeps the houses in strong yellows, greens, blues and reds with white trim, refreshed annually. The Chapel of St Sebastian stands at the centre, holding a crucifix brought from the Goa Inquisition. Bakeries, small bars and a few restored houses open as galleries.

History

Fontainhas was founded in the late eighteenth century by António João de Sequeira, a Goan nicknamed Mossmikar who had made his fortune in Mozambique, and named after a spring that began to flow at the foot of the hill around 1770; it was laid out on the pattern of Lisbon's Bairro Alto. In 1844 a government administrator built the Rua Nova d'Ourem along its seaward side and the Phenis fountain, and the writer William Dalrymple called the quarter "a small chunk of Portugal washed up on the shores of the Indian Ocean" (Wikipedia, Fontainhas (quarter)).

What you'll find

• The painted houses - lanes of strong colour with white trim, repainted yearly.
• The balconies and shell windows - Portuguese domestic details in the streets.
• St Sebastian chapel - the small church at the quarter's centre.
• The bakeries and bars - old family businesses in the lanes.

When to go

November to February; houses are freshly painted after the monsoon, so late in the year they look their best. The quarter is residential and quietest in the morning.

Practical notes

This is a lived-in neighbourhood, not a museum quarter, and photographing doorways and residents needs discretion. It is small and walked in an hour or two. Parking is impossible.

Nearby

Old Goa lies east; Miramar beach is west.

Key facts