Asking for documention of our Geoheritage jewels- Boca de Vaca spring and Fonte Fenix Spring

[Vrishali Dumale-Thorwat]

Dear all,

I am trying to get my hands on any genuine documentation pertaining to the Boca de Vaca spring in Panjim and the Fonte Fenix Spring in Fontainas as i am looking at them as heritage structures of Goa that need our attention and need to be conserved. 

I request anyone with information like architectural drawings, old/new information, local narratives on the springs to get in touch with me at the earliest. Best would be nationally/internationally published work. 

Please consider this request urgent.

Yours Sincerely,

Mrs. Vrishali Dumale-Thorwat

Assistant Professor in Geoinformatics,

Geoinformatics Dept. 

Govt. of Goa.

College. of Multidisciplinary Studies and Research

Borda, Margao, Goa

Contact Number- 8600107600

ORCID- 0009-0008-9253-7943

[Amita Kanekar]

Dear Vrishali,

I would recommend the website hpip.org and the many works of Alice Santiago Faria on Panjim.

Regards,

Amita

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The past is never dead. It is not even past."
                            -- William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun (1950)

Tel: +91 832 2462478 | +91 08007206134 | Panjim, Goa

[William Robert Da Silva]

Vrishali, during the ten-year period I lived in Panaji I had a lot of information collected on Boca de Vaca and Fonte Fenix and Mamai Kamat. Unfortunately, my hand-written material is the library I left at CFAL in Akash Bhavan, Mangalore. At present, I have no access. I was to write about these experiences for FN and his wife's project. I am missing such material. If I come in contact, I will send it over to you. But, you cannot rely on me.

All the best in your search,

William Robert Da Silva

On Fri, May 29, 2026 at 11:33 PM Vrishali Dumale-Thorwat <vrishali...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Frederick Noronha]

Historian Dr Celsa Pinto has covered the growth of Panjim in quite some
detail, in her Anatomy of a Colonial Capital, and its companion volume.  See
goa1556.in This Jstor review by Paul Melo e Castro
[https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/portstudies.34.1.0123] reminds me that
her work might need to be checked too.  Sarto Esteves has written about this
(Goa and Its Future, 1966), and Pietro Della Valle mentions it in his
travels (1892, p.  205).  D.  Garcia de Silva y Figueroa (the Spanidard from
centuries ago, whom late architect and author of some interesting books
Paulo Varela Gomes was keen to translate) apparently refers to the springs,
but possibly near the old capital.  National Institute of Oceanography has
been studying these issues off and on, but am not sure where these would
show up.  The Hakluyt Society was looking at springs "outside Goa" in 1892.
On 1962 text shows up as the Report on [the] Hot Springs in the Bombay
State, and Goa's proximity seems to be mentioned; but possibly nothing in
the state.  Nandkumar Kamat and, separately, BM Gomes (in Sociological
Bulletin, 2005) have written on Goa's springs in general.  There would
surely be more too, but I guess such topics tend to get focussed on locally,
and in languages other than English too.  I seem to vaguely recall some
booklet or book on Goa's springs, but can't seem to find it or remember more
details.

FN

PS: Why "Best would be nationally/internationally published work"? Local work not good enough?