The urban system of the 'Portuguese' city of Macau: inventory of the parish model and heritage patterns

The earliest urban system and plan in the Macao Peninsula started at about 1553-1558 in the late Ming Dynasty, and the earliest planned area of Macao is historically the ‘Portuguese City’ also known in the historiography literature as ‘Christian Town’. Giving structure to a nucleus urbanism, the Portuguese City was structured around a “Main Street – Parishes” model following up the late Portuguese medieval and early Renaissance urban systems. In the 19th century, the vista of the Portuguese City stressed a collection of residential houses covered with Iberian roofs displayed around the parish churches and the plazas. This peculiar urbanism was the main factor differentiating Macao from the other cities in China even from British colonial Hong Kong.
Nowadays, Macao economy is growing very fast and urban planning can’t catch up. The unique character of the Portuguese style city planning of Macao, imitating and adapting the Christian cities in Europe during the late middle Ages and Renaissance is going to be profoundly transformed or even to disappear. Therefore, this dissertation aims to inventory the present-day remains of this old Portuguese urban system in Macao through a guide of the memory realms of the heritage places still remaining in the Parish of St. Lazarus, the Parish of St. Lawrence, and the Parish of St. Anthony.