St Francis Xavier
The church was build in 1928 and was a regular tourist spot and pilgrimage site for Japanese and Catholics (that came to visit the relics of the Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean, martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries).

St Domingo
Senate square is dominated by the Senate building and the Santa Casa de Misericordia the (top) "Holy House of Mercy", founded in 1569, which provided, as modern insurance companies do, medical and human care and economic sustenance of widows and orphans.

St Lazarus
St. Lazarus and Volong quarters were the first modern urbanization that expand the city out side the walls.

St Anthony
St Anthony Church is consider first church built in 1588 and naturally dedicated to this Portuguese saint "colleague" of St. Francis of Assisi.

St Augustine
St Augustine Monastery was founded in 1586 by the Spaniards Francisco Manrique and companions, which were spading the faith from Mexico to the Philippines and Asia.

Cathedral Square
Pope Gregory XIII authorized the building of the first cathedral in 1576. Provisional timber construction were substitute by a masonry with its entrance looking south towards Rua Central (Central street).

Barra & Ama Temple
Barra, is the Portuguese name given to the place were the river met with the sea, or the Inner Harbor.

Mandarin House
It is a complex cluster of buildings near the core of the Lilau western style quarters is in itself a small Chinese village. It was know by the Portuguese as the "Mandarin House" the only survival of other called with this name.

Red Market
During the 19th century, a large number of emigrants increased dramatically the existing urban density. The city expanded outside the walls, towards the river and the sea, by reclaiming.

Taipa Market,
This was the place of the first public market in Taipa Island, used probably since the 19th century.

Guan Ian
The Gun Yan Temple is located in the ancient small Village of Mongh Ha, which existed at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese.

Maginot Line
Macau fortresses had suffered a constant updating required by the evolution of the artillery firepower. After the trenches system failure in W.W.I., the Maginot and Siegfried line were considered inexpugnable compounds.

Senate
The old Senate Building clearly visible in the background of this 19th century sketch by George Chinnery. The Misericordia Church (below) had a mediaeval tower.

Guia Lighthouse
The chapel of Our Lady of Guia was built in 1622 in the highest point of the Macau peninsula. The need of this fortress was apparent after the first Dutch attack to the city. The Feast of the patron of this chapel is the 5th of August.

Taipa Fortress
The old Taipa Fortress was built in 1847 by the Lieutenant Silva Loureiro in the western tip of Taipa Island for protection against pirate raids over merchant ship that prey for booty over the prosperous sea trade in the Pearl River.

Lilau Square
Lilau Square was in the frontier ridge between the western city and the Chinese quarter that sprawled from here trough the beach formed by the Inner Harbor.

St Paul College
The ruins of St. Paul College are the paradigmatic monument of the first encounter between China and the West, focused in mixenization of cultures and sciences.

Consulate
Both buildings are in hilltops facing the Praya grande as it was a tradition in Macau for Public buildings or wealthy merchants.

Taipa Old Village
Taipa Island Was Know as the Dragon Arch two centuries ago. Was divided in two hills.

Old Macao
Old Photos of Macao

Praia Five Houses
In the mid 19th century, Taipa had a constant grow in population. In 1896 the islands had 12.802 register land and sea (fisherman) inhabitants. After 1910, the number of public buildings grows fast in Taipa and Coloane Islands.

Happiness Street
These street is the best-preserved to our times of a typical Chinese quarters of Macau. Built by the end of the 19th century when the population and business were growing this area become a gambling center, the entertainment area and the red district.

Almeida Ribeiro
The Almeida Ribeiro Avenue or San Ma Lou was opened in 1915 to link the western residential area called ``Praia Grande'' with the main Chinese commercial center, the Inner Harbor.

Coloane Village
Coloane Village still keeps some of the original ambience of the previous Inner Harbor of Macau peninsula.

Rua Direita
The Rua Direita (which means "right or strait" in Portuguese) was the common name for the medieval main streets and is the skeleton of Taipa Village urban fabric.

Praya Grande
Beginning as a relatively small fishing village in the 16th century, Macao has become by the end of the 20th century, an impressive cosmopolitan and multiracial city-state.

Lou Kau
Lou Cheok Chin (1837-1906) or Lou Kau, a wealthy businessman, helped to convince many rich Chinese to build their family mansions and gardens in an area outside the city walls between the Christian city and the Mong Ha village.

Camoes Garden
Most of the public gardens inherit from the past were from religious orders, or the military administration, like the Camões Garden, St Francisco Garden, Penha and Monte Hill.

Inner Harbor Evolution
From the 1990's to the present, urban sprawling had changed the traditional familiar style of in the Inner Harbor. The general "modern" urban laws that allowed a 760 degree angle disrespect the ancient grid and volume of this area

Timeline
A chart displaying the development of Macao.

Places to visit

Places worth to take a visit

Cultural Center
The Cultural Center Complex is mainly composed of two buildings, which were intended separated in order to reflect the two main cultures of Macau, the Chinese and the Portuguese, which had lived peacefully together for centuries.

Macau Tower
Now between her two new lakes, another Lotus, shining in metal, has risen from the dust and mud, reaching the blue and clear skies. Macau Tower was born.

Historical Center
From the Camões garden until Barra fortress, the historical nucleus had to be considered as a heritage unity, that characterize Macao as an historical western city.