Gloria Church

I drive past the Gloria Church at Byculla everyday on my way to work. It is an eye-catching building in beautiful grey stone, with tall spires.

Byculla is an interesting place. It used to be a low-lying area that was flooded by the sea everyday during the high tide. When the Great Breach at Mahalakshmi was closed in 1784, Byculla dried up, and land became available for settling.

To the east of Byculla lies Mazagaon, one of the original seven islands of Bombay. When land at Byculla became available, the European enclave in Mazgaon began to grow westwards into Byculla.

The original Gloria Church, Nossa Senhora de Gloria, was built in 1632 by the deSouza e Lima family, who owned Mazagaon island. (The deSouza's got the island in perpetuity from the King of Portugal in 1572. As a matter of fact, if you meet any D'Souza's in Bombay, they probably could trace their descent from this family.)

In 1911, the old church was destroyed and this new one was built in the prevailing Gothic style.

See the tall narrow windows, with pointed arched heads? Those are the typical lancet light windows of Gothic buildings.

And these flowery thingies at the apex of the spire's pinnacles, these are called finials, I think.

How do I know? Because I looked it up here!