Senado Square Area

Senado Square — Largo do Senado — is the civic centre of Macau, a colonnaded oval of Portuguese-tiled paving surrounded by buildings dating from the 17th through early 20th centuries. The square was the administrative heart of Portuguese Macau for over 300 years — the Leal Senado (Loyal Senate) building on the northern edge has housed the city's municipal administration since 1784. The building's name commemorates Macau's loyalty to the Portuguese crown during the period of Spanish rule (1580-1640).

The Ruins of St Paul's, a 10-minute walk from the square, are the surviving baroque facade and monumental staircase of the Church of the Mother of God, built by Jesuit priests (and Japanese Christian exile craftsmen) between 1582 and 1640. The church burned in 1835; only the elaborately carved stone facade survived. The facade is simultaneously a document of Jesuit missionary architecture, a monument to the Macanese fusion of European, Chinese, and Japanese artistic traditions, and the most reproduced architectural image of Macau.

Monte Fortress, on the hill directly behind St Paul's, was built by the Jesuits between 1617 and 1626 to defend the city against Dutch attack. It is the only significant fortification in the region to have successfully repelled a Dutch naval assault — in 1622, a cannon shot from the fort (fired, according to tradition, by a Jesuit brother aiming at a Dutch powder magazine) drove off a Dutch fleet and landing force. The fortress walls and cannons are preserved in their original positions.

The surrounding streets — Rua da Palha, Rua do Cunha, Travessa de Santo Agostinho — form the most intact Portuguese colonial-era street fabric in Asia, a dense weave of low-rise buildings with tiled facades, wrought-iron balconies, and small religious chapels at the lane junctions.