The archaeological museum houses some lovely fragments of sculpture from Hindu temple sites in Goa, and some sati stones, which once marked the spot where a Hindu widow committed suicide by flinging herself onto her husband’s funeral pyre.
You’ll also find two large bronze statues here: one of the Portuguese poet Luís Vaz de Camões, which once stood more prominently in the central grassy area of Old Goa, and one of Afonso de Albuquerque, the Portuguese conqueror and first governor of Goa, which stood in the Azad Maidan in Panaji, before being moved here after Independence.
Upstairs, a gallery contains portraits of some 60 of Goa’s Portuguese viceroys, spanning more than 400 years of Portuguese rule. Not particularly exciting in terms of portraiture, they’re an interesting insight into Portugal’s changing fashions, each as unsuitable for the tropical heat as the last.
