Big Day Out: St. Paul's Church

Our first stop on our Big Day Out was A Famosa, a fortress built by the Portuguese. The only remaining part of the fortress still standing is Porta de Santiago, a small gate house. For more information on A Famosa, you can read one of our previous blog posts. 

Before leaving for our next stop, we took a group photo in front of the fort.

Next, we headed to St Paul's Church, which sat on top of St Paul's hill. It is a bricked church with a white exterior, but faded with time because it was built in the sixteenth century. 

The first thing we saw was a caged-up rectangular hole cut in the ground, filled with coins. This was the temporary resting place of Saint Francis before his body was brought to Goa, and throwing a coin into it would supposedly grant you a wish.

There were a few smaller, darker rooms too, with tombstones in them. They were gray and plaque-like, with Portuguese and Dutch inscriptions and emblems. Curtain tassels and family crests, for example, were signs of affluence.

Outside the church stood a statue of St Francis Xavier and a lighthouse. They were both added by the British in 1953.

Here, we also saw an artist, Mr Francis Goh, 70 years old, who was the "first artist on the hill". He was one of our interviewees and he shared with us many interesting stories and quotes. His artworks were beautiful and other than buying them as souvenirs, we also took a group photo with him before making our way down the hill.

This trip to St Paul's Church was very interesting as we saw a beautifully preserved, extremely old building that showcased Malacca's long and illustrious heritage.