Pilar Museum
The Pilar Museum is a witness to this rich cultural heritage of Pilar hillock and to a great extent, the heritage of the Shilaharas (765 – 1020 AD) and the Kadambas (1050 – 1354 AD), who had their capital city, Govapuri, around the hillock. Right through the Muslim and Portuguese conquests, the history continues down to the present day Goa State of the Indian Union. We have been somewhat able to piece together a continuous politico-religious history of the Pilar hillock, as well as of Goa, from the monuments and artefacts dating back up to the 2nd Millennium BC. For the Franciscan Capuchins (Capuchos) built the Pilar Monastery and occupied it from 1613 to 1835; and after them the Carmelites took possession of it, from 1856 to 1887. And finally from 1890, the Pilar Monastery was made the headquarters of the Society of Pilar, by the decree of. D. A. S. Valente, the first Patriarch of Goa, who sometimes also acted as the President of the Governing Council of Goa, in the absence of the Portuguese Governor General.