Santa Cruz (meaning holy cross in Portuguese) is the largest village in Goa with a population of 21,000 people different religions and also who trace their origins to different parts of India.
Location
Geographically, it is situated in the North Goa district in the Sub-District of Ilhas de Goa (which means Islands of Goa, in the Portuguese language) or Tiswadi (thirty villages in Konkani) taluka or sub-district.
Santa Cruz is bounded north with Rio de Ourem (river of gold estuary, in Portuguese). Its neighbouring villages are Merces (“à mercê de” translates to “at the mercy of”) village which stretches from the north-east to the east (on the east side of the NH 17), Bambolim which stretches from east to the south and Taleigao which stretches from the south to the west. Panjim, the capital city of the state of Goa located on the largest of the islands, is to its northwest.