Archdioceasan Heritage Museum

A repository of artifacts dating back to bygone era that tells the journey of Christianity in the Goregaon area of Mumbai, the Archdioceasan Heritage Museum is a one-stop destination for viewing heritage objects that had been collected for over 300 years from different churches in Mumbai.

About the Museum

Nestled in the leafy settings of St. Pius X College in Goregaon, Mumbai, is the Archdioceasan Heritage Museum, one of the only two in the entire country. formerly used as a gym by the Seminary, it has been transformed into a treasure trove since 2011 and houses a comprehensive and rare collection of Christian artifacts gathered from churches in Bombay, Pune, and Goa. A beautiful and aesthetically pleasing place, the museum is brightly lit with hardware pieces curated to give it a look of the bygone era that will teleport you to another age revealing the journey of Christianity in the region.

Many exhibits in the museum have been excavated from the church attics, crypts, and family altars where they lay silently, each with their own untold story. With the efforts of the people associated and their labor of love, many objects and artifacts were discovered and repaired to their original glory, which otherwise would have been lost to generations unborn. On display, is a copy of King Jame’s Bible with its leather binding foil-stamped in gold with twelve Stations of the Cross. many different manuscripts, religious objects, and sculptures are also put on display with a huge statue of St. Paul originally belonging to a locality church in the suburbs of Malad in Mumbai. The statue is perched atop a lotus- a symbol associated with divinity in Hinduism. The works of Angelo da Fonseca, an apprentice under the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, are also put on display here along with a splendid assortment of metalwork and religious-themed embroidery which is a delightful sight.

The Heritage Museum takes the visitors back into the historic era with some of the religious objects dating back to the 16th century, the time when Portuguese-led evangelization of the region began. Many of the churches from that period have been destroyed or left unattended, but the objects from those churches were salvaged and preserved in the Heritage Museum for public sighting. The Archdioceasan Heritage Museum is a must-visit stop in Mumbai which will unquestionably give the visitors a sense of having learned something about the past and their culture.