The Historical City Of Malacca

Welcome to Malacca World Heritage City. On this site you
will find comprehensive listing with information on almost
every aspect of visiting and living in Malacca.

Malacca History
· Introduction
· The state crest
· The state flag
· History and historical chronology
· Malacca's historical sites
· Places of interest
· Trivia and folklore
  · The legend of Pulau Besar
  · St. Francis lore
  · The first school in Malaysia
  · Admiral Cheng Ho's famous fingerprints
  · A Chinese princess and a magic well
  · Population of Malacca in 1881
· Malacca Walkabout
  · Historical site walk
  · Religious houses tour
  · Jogging on Bukit China
· Legendary visitors of ancient Malacca
  · Admiral Cheng Ho (Zheng He)
  · Ferdinand Magellan
  · Saint Francisco Xavier
  · Sir Stamford Raffles
  · Yap Ah Loy
· The Malay Sultanate of Malacca
  · The early stages
  · The administration
  · The political functions
· The Portuguese conquest of Malacca
· The Malacca fort 'A Famosa'
· Back to the past
  · Alfred Russel Wallace (1854)
  · Isabella Lucy Bird (1879)
· Old paintings and maps of Malacca
· Black and white pictures of yesteryears
· The ruins of St. Paul's Church
· Birdwatching at Bukit China

Historical sites walk

The bridge over the Malacca River (1), on Jalan Hang Jebat is the best place to begin a historical tour of the city since this part of town is where it all began back in the 14th, century. Old, elegant, Indonesian sailing perahus and wooden barges still crowd the nearby docks. Charcoal and rice from Sumatra are unloaded and bartered for Malaysian foodstuffs much the same as in those olden times when Malacca was a great seaport. Beside the bridge is the Town Square with its terracotta red Dutch colonial buildings.

To the left is Christ Church (2), the oldest Protestant church in Malaysia, built in 1753. In the centre of the square is the Tan Beng Swee Clock Tower (3), built by his wealthy Baba family in 1886. Under the tinkling waters of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Fountain (4), in the middle of the Town Square, trishaw drivers await their customers. If you feel inclined to be driven around, these self proclaimed tourist guides will give a good tour of Malacca's historical sites, peppered with a lively narration at a reasonable price. Dominating the Square is the impressive 'Stadthuys' (5), once the home of the Dutch Governor and now the Musium Sejarah, Historical Museum. Housed in its solid red walls are artifacts from every era of Malacca's colourful past - Dutch sideboards, Nyonya wedding costumes and Ming porcelain dating from the Malaccan Sultanate.

Follow Jalan Kota, around the base of St. Paul's Hill, to Porta de Santiago (6), the only remaining ruin of the great Portuguese fort A Famosa, built in the 16th century. From here the circular walk takes you around the original circumference of the old fort which covered the whole of St. Paul's Hill and housed the Portuguese nobility. It contained five churches, two hospitals and administrative buildings. When the British destroyed the fort in 1806, Malacca lost its most dominant historical feature. Climb the steps to St. Paul's Church (7), now a ruin. Built by the Portuguese in 1521 it was originally named Duarte Coelho and was a, Catholic church. The empty grave of St. Francis Xavier lies in the centre of the church and massive granite tombstones from Dutch times line the walls. Come back down the stairs to Jalan Kota, turn left and you can't miss seeing the Malaccan Sultanate's Palace, or Istana (8) constructed in the mid 1980's. The superb reconstruction uses traditional materials. The original istana was built in the time of Sultan Mansur Shah, (1459-1477), during the Golden Age of the Malaccan Sultanate.

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We recommend the following site(s):
· The Dutch in Malaysia: Dutchmalaysia.net
· Malacca on Wikipedia: Wikipedia.org