This is the college chapel. Centrally located in this huge campus, it is most famous for the magnificent paintings that cover virtually every inch of the altar, walls, pillars and even (believe it or not ) the ceiling !. These paintings were the work of Br. Antonio Moscheni s.j. (1854-1905) during the period 1899-1900, whose painstaking efforts are clearly visible in the accuracy that each painting exhibits.

Did you know? This chapel very closely resembles the world-famous Sistine Chapel situated in Rome.

Shown here is the main altar of the chapel. It is the focus of people visiting monthly, weekly or even daily to attend the services. As for those entering the chapel for the first time, the low involuntary gasp would still be audible in this silent paradise.

How the Chapel was painted :

There are two types of paintings in the Chapel: fresco and canvas.

A fresco is painted on fresh wet lime plaster walls. The colours get embedded in the lime plaster as it dries up. Frescoes cover about 600 square metres of the walls of the Chapel. For an oil painting, the colours are made by mixing pigments with linseed oil. The canvas is made of pure linen of strong close weave. The paintings on the ceilings in the Chapel (about 400 Square Metres) are in oil on canvas.

Did you know? Being more than a hundred years old now, each painting had to be recently restored with utmost care and precision to ensure that they still look like they did a century ago.This was done by the INTACH-ICI specialists (Lucknow), between 1991 and 1994.

Chapel Frescoes (Graphic intensive links)