This tower is the last relic of the famous Church of Our Lady of Grace attached to the Convent of St. Augustine on the Monte Santo( Holy Mount ). Soon after their arrival in 1572, the Augustinians built a modest Convent. Later it was rebuilt. The foundation stone was laid on September 9,1597, and the work was completed in 1602. Close to this Convent there was a Church with the façade looking towards the west; it was erected at the same time as the Convent. It had an imposing frontispiece with two five-storeyed towers with a pinaccled balustrade on the top. Its façade has been reconstituted by Prof. Mario Tavares Chico with the help of old photographs. This Convent was famous for its library, the paintings, the gilt woodwork and the azulejos. William Franklin praised it more than all the others, in the XVIIIth century; "All the Churches in the city are magnificient; but that of St. Augustine,due to its situation on the top of a hill,

due to the beauty of its interior decoration, excels over all the others". On the southern side of this Convent there was a Novitiate and opposite to this building stood the famous Collegio de Populo (People's College).

When the religious Orders was suppressed in Goa in 1833, 59 friars left the Convent; but it was well preserved. The Santa Casa de Misericordia was transferred to this Convent in 1836; but they could not afford to live there on account of its high maintenance cost. Consequently this sumptuous edifice fell into neglect. The vault of the Church collapsed in the morning of eight September 1842, burying under its debris the colossal images of St. Augustine and Our Lady of Grace. In the night of August 8, 1931, the frontispiece fell down leaving only one of its towers.

The Church had a big bell cast in Lisbon by Joao Nicolau Levachi. At present it is to be found in the Panjim Church. An interesting story is narrated about this Church. "An Italian architect who was entrusted with the construction of its vault, but his labours were on both the occasions rendered fruitless by its fall. Being reduced to despair, he rebuilt it the third time, and to try its stability placed himself and his only son directly under it and ordered a heavy cannon to be fired near the building, choosing rather to loose his life in the event of the vault falling through than to undergo a fresh disappointment. Fortunately the vault resisted the shock and he was satisfied as to the durability of the work and received a suitable remuneration for his pains."