Information on Saligao:

Nestling on the West Coast of India, where the waters of the Arabian Sea lap at the beautiful golden beaches of Goa. A short distance away from this idealistic coast lies the village of Saligao. A small and piques place with beautifully maintained Old Portuguese villas, shady coconut groves and lush green paddy fields. In the middle of these beautiful surroundings lies the 125 years old, parish church of Mae de Deus. With its spiky Gothic-revival architecture this church is one of its kind, while most churches and chapels of Goa bare the distinctive Portuguese style.

Surrounded by the villages of Parra, Guirim, Sangolda, Pilerne, Candolim, Calangute and Nagoa and in Bardez Taluka, Saligao has a population of a little over 6000. Just 3 kms from the famous Calangute Beach and 7 kms from the market town of Mapusa. Bisected by the CHOGAM Road, Saligao is an amazing maze of narrow path ways and lanes. Within these narrow confines one will find the ancestral houses of many distinguished personalities who have made the village proud. The List of these eminent Saligaonkars is much too large to put up. For more information you could check out the book PROFILES OF EMINENT PEOPLE OF SALIGAO by C Hubert De Souza (printwell Press, Panaji)

Though there is a lot said and written about the name Saligao. It is generally accepted that the name originates from the word 'sal', because the surrounding hillsides of the village were once densely covered with 'Sal trees'.

Saligao is a mixed community of Catholics and Hindus, who have lived in harmony with each other and show exceptional tolerance and respect for each other's religion. The Portuguese converted many Hindus after they annexed Bardez, following the consolidation of their holdings south of the Mandovi River. This accounts for the sizable Catholic population.

Primarily a farming community, Saligao later turned to sugarcane as a subsistence crop and a rotation of cereals to keep the soil fertile. With the extension of the sugarcane plantations, the economy of the village underwent a radical change. It was these vast sugarcane plantations that led the neighbouring villages to dub Salgaokars as 'unshelantle kole', meaning foxes from the cane plantations. Today the cane is no longer cultivated and has been replaced by paddy.

For the Catholic community activities are centered around the Church of Mae de Deus and the Saligao Institute (founded in 1929). The first English medium schools in Goa probably started here with the founding of the St Mary's Boys School in 1900 and later the Mater Dei Institution in 1909. The St Mary's Girls School, was the first boarding school for girls in Goa, and is today known as the Lourdes Convent.