History of the Fortresses

One of the most enduring reminders of Portugal's age of exploration is the number of ruined forts that can be found in coastal areas of Africa, Arabia, India, Malaya and Indonesia. They were designed to protect Portuguese settlements against pirates, hostile natives and European rivals, as well as sheltering people from neighboring areas who looked for protection.

When the Portuguese settled in Macau in 1554-57, they didn't initially need such protection. Their well armed ships kept local pirates at bay, the neighboring Chinese were happy to have them as entrepreneurs for their overseas trade, and it was many years before the rest of Europe discovered Portugal's jealously guarded secret - that China was the vast, rich Cathay described by Marco Polo.

Not until the last years of the 16^th century did the Dutch arrive in Asia, hoping to capture trade and strategic ports from the Portuguese, with a fleet of the biggest and best-armed ships of the day.

In response, Macau began building fortifications, while assuring the Mandarins that they were solely for defense against the newly arrived barbarians, not the Chinese.

The forts were placed along the Praia Grande, in the Inner Harbour and on the city's highest hills.

Except for the praia-side Bomparto, the forts were only half completed when the Dutch invaded on June 24, 1622, but they were instrumental in driving the Dutch back to sea. In the following year, Dom Francisco de Mascarenhas arrived to be the first full-time governor. His prime aim was to complete the forts and make Macau impregnable to invasion.

Under his administration the forts of Monte, Barra, S. Francisco, Penha and S. Januario were finished and Guia planned. Two systems of city walls were constructed: one in the north connected the Inner Harbour at Patane to monte and on to the south east, joining the Fortress of S. Januario to end at S. Francisco; one in the south began a Bomparto, lead up to Penha and down to the Harbour.

Mascarenhas also established a cannon foundry and invited Manuel Tavares Bocarro to run it. Bocarro's cannons became famous throughout Asia, for their beauty as well as efficiency. They were used by China's last Ming emperors and various kings of Siam as well as the Portuguese.

Guia fort was built in 1637, and then followed two centuries without new forts, as Macau lost its importance for predators. The situation changed following the Anglo Chinese War in 1841. The Mandarins demanded that Macau pull down some of its walls. Instead the Portuguese built new forts on Mong-Ha and Dona Maria hills, facing the Chinese border, and on the islands of Taipa in 1847 and Coloane in 1884.

In the 1870's the government, desperate sold most of the Bocarro cannons for scrap metal, ( a few remain, in the Tower of London and Jakarta Museum ), the forts fell into decay, while the wall was gradually demolished to make way for a growing city.

Today the walls are all gone but several forts survive, now converted for peaceful, public use, as described in this page. (For more detailed descriptions, see Jorge Graça's [The Fortification of Macau], and [Chronicles in Stone] by Shann Davies, available from the Macau Government Tourist Office).

Construction and Design

The forts give parts of Macau an old European skyline, which isn't surprising as they follow the design of Vauban, Louis XIV's chief military engineer. His idea was to offer the lowest possible profile to attackers while providing the widest field of fire for the defenders. So the forts have walls that slant slightly upwards, against earthen ramparts. Bastions at corners of the walls were meant to break up an attack, while casemates contained gun emplacements.

As with forts in Europe, those in Macau stood oil stone foundations, but many of the walls differed considerably. They were made of chunambo, a mixture of earth, straw, lime and oyster shells, tightly packed in layers between strips of wood. This material was said to be able to withstand cannonballs. This is never tested in Macau , however, when part of the wall, built of chunambo was demolished it took 1,800 lbs. of gunpowder to destroy 142 yards of it.

Another characteristic of Macau's forts is that they frequently contained hermitages, which were places of pilgrimage especially for sailors and traders who welcomed the sight of the hilltop forts on return from dangerous voyages.

In addition to strategic hilltop locations, the forts were built to protect the Inner Harbour, the Praia Grande bay and to a lesser extent, the Outer Harbour and the Chinese border. From the vantage point of Guia fort, a visitor today can easily visualise how effectively the forts covered all approaches to Macau.

Monte Fort, built in 1617-26, occupies a hilltop to the east of the ruins of St. Paul's. It was constructed by the Jesuits as part of a complex which also included the college and church of St. Paul's. The canons were used only once, when the Dutch invaded Macau in 1622. This was also the first residence of the governors of Macau. Over the following decades trees grew from the platform of the fort, which was transformed into a public park where residents and visitors came to enjoy the views. The only building was an office of the Meteorological Department until 1998 when the three-level Macau Museum, focusing on the history of Macau, was built into the fortress hill.

Mong Há Fort, situated on Mong Há Hill at the northern end of Macau, is a newer fortress, built in anticipation of a Chinese invasion following the Anglo-Chinese War in 1841. It was completed in 1866 and was in active service until the 1960's, when it was abandoned. Today the area has been turned into a park with flowerbeds, grassy slopes and walkways surrounding the old fortress walls. It provides a quiet refuge for people living in the nearby neighborhoods, and good views of the north end of the city.

Built 1629 on the site of a battery which sank one of the warships 'The Golias' of the Dutch invaders, the original fortress of S. Francisco stood at the end of old Praia Grande, facing the Taipa channel. Its armaments included a culverin, which could fire 35-pound iron shots a distance of one and a half miles (the width of the channel). Little more is known of the original fort or the convent of S. Francisco, which was attached to it.

Both fort and convent were demolished to make way for new barracks in 1864, to house the Battalion of the First Line, brought in as defence against a Chinese attack which never came. The barracks survive today as headquarters for the Security Forces and sections of the Police Force. They present an attractive, colonial facade of pink-washed stone with white trim. Inside are offices and meeting rooms around a flag-stoned courtyard, in the spacious lobby are display cases filled with old prints and pictures of the previous fort and convent, a collection of old weapons and other.

None of Macau's other fortresses has survived, hut some reminders can he seen. The TAIPA FORT was rebuilt and is now used as a police station. The BOMPARTO FORT once stood on the praia and its ruins were used as foundations for the Bela Vista Hotel. Two of the old forts are recalled in very different way: the Penha Church now stands on the site of PENHA FORT, while the site of the DONA MARIA FORT marks a famous bend in the Guia Circuit of the Macau Grand Prix. As for the old city walls, all that remains are small sections behind the Bela Vista and on S. Januario Hill.

Our Lady of Guia chapel is closed for maintenance starting from 17th November 2003.

Guia Fort, built in 1637-38, occupies the top of Guia Hill, the highest point in Macau. It was designed to defend Macau from attacks from the sea, but because of its position overlooking the entire city, its chief value has been as an observation post. It originally contained barracks, a water cistern, ammunition and equipment stores, the commander's house, and a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Guia. Today the Fort's most prominent feature is the lighthouse, built in 1865 and the oldest on the China coast. It is 91 metres high and has a light which can be seen for around 20 miles in clear weather. Near the lighthouse is the chapel which contains an image of the Virgin Mary, a few antique pictures, and vestiges of paintings that date back to the construction of the chapel in 1626. Also nearby is a post where signals are hoisted to warn of an approaching typhoon. In earlier times storm warnings were announced from the bell-tower of the chapel.

(Fortress of S. Tiago da Barra)

Completed in 1629 on the site of an older cannon battery, Barra fort successfully protected the bar at the entrance to the Inner Harbour against the Dutch in 1622. Such credit was given to the fort, that between the 17th and 18th centuries, the commander of the fort was chosen directly by the king of Portugal and was not under the orders of the Macau governor or the captain general. The fort was described as a small town, built into the hills on the tip of the peninsula. The 30-feet chunambo walls, rising from stone foundations, were 19 feet thick at the base and 11 feet at the top. The main platform was 375' by 1.38' and supported 12 cannons of 24-pound calibre and four 50 pounders, a water cistern with 3,000-ton capacity and quarters for the commander and 60 soldiers. Higher up the hill was a guardhouse and six 24-pound cannons, while at ground level were stores for ammunitions and supplies, as well as a large house.

In 1740 a chapel was built in the fort, dedicated to St. James (S. Tiago), patron saint of the military. Legend has it that the saint's statue would patrol the fort at night and have mud on his boots in the morning, so a soldier was detailed to clean them. On one occasion it's said the soldier failed to do so and was hit on the head by St. James' sword.

After 1622 the fort's cannons were never needed, until World War 2 when they were sold for rice to feed refugees from Hong Kong and China. Over the years the fort was gradually demolished to make room for roads and by 1976 it was abandoned by the Marine Police. The Macau Government Tourist Office decided to convert the ruins into a Portuguese inn, which today is one of the city's great attractions. To discover how the architect used the original walls, made the cistern into a fountain, incorporated century-old trees into the design and restored the chapel, visitors are welcome any time at the Pousada de Sao Tiago.