It is always better to be home than being in any other place. My journeys so far have been to some new places which held beautiful stories for me. So this time, I decided to visit a place which felt more like home, the College Chapel.
The Aloysius College Chapel situated in Mangalore was built in the year 1880 by the Jesuit missionaries who came to Mangalore as part of their mission. The Jesuits also started St Aloysius College with the aim of providing education to the children in the area. The Chapel consists of paintings painted by Italian Antonio Moscheni. He took around two years and six months to complete the beautiful paintings in the Chapel. The Chapel consists of frescoes and canvas paintings. Fresco paintings are done on fresh wet lime and oil paintings use pigments with linseed oil. The life story of Jesus is painted in the rear wall starting from one end to the other. The Chapel is dedicated to St Aloysius Gonzaga whose life story is depicted in the ceiling of the Chapel. St Aloysius was born in 1568 to a royal family in Italy. Since he was the eldest among the children, he was supposed to be a soldier as per the tradition. But he chose the path of Jesus and joined the Society of Jesus in 1585. He volunteered with some other group of people to serve the patients who were affected by plague in 1591. Later he himself became the victim of the disease and died in the same year. He is now known as the patron for youth and young students.
“The paintings are 140 years old and it takes a lot of efforts to preserve them in the same way. Restoration works of the paintings is done once in 20 years to keep it the same. The restoration has just been completed in 2018 under the guidance of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Delhi. A team of 12 members studied the paintings for three months and carried out the restoration work. They cleaned the paintings using chemical treatment and removed dust from it. The paintings get spoiled if they are exposed to sunlight and dust. So the glasses of the windows are painted to resist the entry of sunlight into the Chapel. The doors are also kept shut during the day time to avoid salt from the sea. We restrict mobile photography inside the Chapel, because the radiation also causes damage to the paintings,” said Henry Pereira, the Chapel guide.
The floor of the Chapel has 3D hexagon blocks which give an illusion of ascending order from any direction. The blocks look like steps and a person entering into the Chapel feels that they are moving towards God. The sloping panel of the chapel contains the portraits of the 12 apostles. The Aloysius Chapel is considered as the replica of Sistine Chapel in the Vatican City.
The Chapel itself is a world of wonders. Each painting illustrates a particular event and adds beauty to the Chapel.
The Road Taken 