Ruins of St. Paul's in Macau

It is the most famous sight in Macau. The original church was probably designed by an Italian Jesuit in the early 17th century and it was built with the assistance of Japanese Christian artisans who had fled from feudal persecution in Nagasaki. In 1835,the church and its adjacent college caught fire and burned to the ground leaving only the facade, the staircase and a few portions of the walls. In 1996 a religious museum was opened in the excavated crypt of the church. It contains the tomb of the Jesuit missionary Valignano, bones of Japanese and Vietnamese martyrs, a model of the original church and some17th century works of religious art.