Walk the Historic Centre of Macao, from Senado Square to the Ruins of St Paul’s

The Historic Centre of Macao is the old city at the heart of Macau, on the peninsula, and a World Heritage Site since 2005. It joins 22 buildings with the squares and streets between them: churches and Chinese temples, fortresses, mansions and a theatre. UNESCO describes it as the first and most enduring encounter between China and the West, and it is best seen on foot, in a walk of a few hours from Senado Square up to the Ruins of St Paul’s.

Two cities in the same streets

Macau came under Portuguese administration in the middle of the sixteenth century and returned to China in 1999. The old centre was where the Portuguese community lived, and for more than four hundred years Chinese and European building went up side by side. The walk keeps crossing between the two: a Catholic church, then a Chinese temple, then a merchant’s courtyard house, often within the same few streets.

From Senado Square to St Paul’s

Senado Square is the start. The Leal Senado Building, seat of the old municipal council, and the Holy House of Mercy stand on it, and the square leads on to St Dominic’s Church and its own small square. Close by are Sam Kai Vui Kun, a temple to Kuan Tai, and the Lou Kau Mansion, the house of the merchant Lou Kau. The Cathedral stands on its square a short climb away.

The streets then rise to the Ruins of St Paul’s. The church was built by the Jesuits between 1602 and 1640 and was one of the largest Catholic churches in Asia; a fire during a typhoon destroyed it in 1835, and only the stone façade survived, at the top of a broad flight of steps. Its decoration mixes Christian imagery with Chinese characters and stone lions, and the crypt behind it was excavated in the 1990s. Mount Fortress overlooks it, and the small Na Tcha Temple and a section of the old city walls are beside it.

The southern quarter and Guia Hill

A second walk runs south, through St Augustine’s Square with the Dom Pedro V Theatre and the Sir Robert Ho Tung Library, past St Lawrence’s Church and St Joseph’s Seminary and Church, to Lilau Square, the Mandarin’s House and the Moorish Barracks. It ends at the A-Ma Temple on Barra Square, built in 1488 and dedicated to the goddess of seafarers, from which the name Macau is thought to come.

To the north are Casa Garden, St Anthony’s Church and the Old Protestant Cemetery. To the east, Guia Fortress holds a chapel and a lighthouse that UNESCO counts as the oldest in China.

Good to know

The squares and streets are open at all times and the façade of St Paul’s stands in the open air; the churches, temples, museums and houses keep their own hours. The two walks can be done on separate days, with the hills of the centre in the cooler morning. For a hotel, Raffles at Galaxy Macau is on Cotai, a short drive from the old city.

Sources: UNESCO World Heritage Centre; Macao Government Information Bureau; Wikipedia, Historic Centre of Macau; Wikipedia, Ruins of St Paul’s.