RUINS OF SÃO PAULO

This church is the most famous site of Macau. Its monumental facade and staircase are everything that remains of the'largest Christian monument in Asia '. Between 1602 and 1637, Jesuits assisted by Japanese Christians, fleeing from Nagasaki persecutions, built the building on one of the seven hills of Macao. This collegial church was used as an oratory at Collège Saint-Paul in 1594. They were missionaries. Consecrated in 1603, the building was very famous for its beauty, and received lavish donations from the largest kings of Europe. Matteo Ricci and many missionaries studied Chinese before leaving China offering their services to the Ming court as astrologers and mathematicians. In 1835, a fire killed the church only the monumental facade and staircase. The site was re-launched in 1991. The facade is surmounted by the Jerusalem cross. The lower niches houses bronze statues (flows to Macao in a barrel foundry). The Virgin Mary is framed of angels and flowers, the représentant representing China, and chrysanthème him in Japan. Behind the facade, you can go to the empty space that was previously the church (the location of the pillars is marked on the ground). At the bottom of the crypt, in a magnificent and clean place, the relics of the martyrs of Japan and Vietnam are preserved.