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Museums & Galleries in Historic Centre of Macau
The UNESCO-listed old core of Macau on the peninsula, a walkable weave of baroque churches, Chinese temples, cobbled squares and the ruins of St Paul's, where the city's main history museum crowns Monte Fort and restored Qing courtyard mansions open to visitors.
Why here
The Historic Centre of Macau, inscribed by UNESCO in 2005, is a rare living overlay of Chinese and Portuguese life across more than twenty monuments and squares, and the best way in is through its museums. The Macao Museum sits on top of Monte Fort, the Jesuit-built fortress of 1617 to 1626 that overlooks the ruins of St Paul's, and lays out the city's origins, trade, folk religion and Macanese daily life across three floors. A short walk downhill, the Mandarin's House is the largest surviving Qing courtyard residence in Macau, the restored home of the reformist thinker Zheng Guanying, a maze of moon gates, sky wells and grey brick begun in 1868. Between the fortress museum and the mandarin's mansion you read the whole cross-cultural story of the place on foot, all inside the World Heritage zone.
Best months
Both sites are open year round and closed one day a week, the Macao Museum on Mondays. The Historic Centre is compact and walkable, though hilly around Monte Fort and the ruins of St Paul's. Macau is subtropical and humid; spring and autumn are most comfortable, while summer brings heat and the odd typhoon. Mornings are quieter before tour groups reach the central squares.
Getting there & around
The Historic Centre is on the Macau peninsula, walkable from Senado Square, with the Macao Museum reached by escalator and steps up Monte Fort beside the ruins of St Paul's. The Mandarin's House is a ten minute walk south towards the inner harbour. Buses and taxis serve the edges of the old town, which is otherwise best covered on foot; entry to the Mandarin's House is free and the Macao Museum charges a small fee.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
Macao Museum
OrganizerThe Macao Museum, inaugurated on 18 April 1998, is the city's principal history museum, built into Monte Fort, the Jesuit fortress of 1617 to 1626 that stands above the ruins of St Paul's in the Historic Centre. Its three floors trace the origins and meeting of Chinese and Portuguese civilisations, the trade and religions of old Macau, and the folk customs, crafts and Macanese life of the territory. Run under the Cultural Affairs Bureau, it is the anchor museum of the UNESCO World Heritage zone.
Mandarin's House Macau
OrganizerThe Mandarin's House is the largest surviving traditional Chinese courtyard residence in Macau, at about 4,000 square metres, the ancestral home of the late-Qing reformist thinker Zheng Guanying, begun by his father Zheng Wenrui around 1868. A compound of moon gates, sky wells and grey brick blending Chinese and Western detail, it was restored by the Cultural Affairs Bureau over eight years and opened to the public, and forms part of the Historic Centre of Macau inscribed by UNESCO in 2005.