Mong Ha Fort or Fortaleza do Mong Ha, is the last fort to be built in Macau. It is located on Mong-Há Hill, on the northern part of the territory, facing China. The Anglo-Sino conflict of 1841 gave the Portuguese the jitters. This was the time when tension between Chinese nationlist and the European powers was at its peak.
The Portuguese, under Governor Ferreira do Amaral, hurriedly started construction of Mong Ha Fort in 1849, in an effort to thwart any attacks on their colony. Governor Ferreira do Amaral was assassinated shortly thereafter, and Governor Coelho do Amaral took over the construction in 1864. The fort was finally completed in 1866, but there was never an attack on the fort.
Section of Mong Ha Fort dating to 1866 (10 November, 2007)
Mong Ha Fort was in active service until the 1960s. As the relationship between Beijing and Lisbon improved, there was no need of the fort. When Macau was transferred to Chinese sovereignty, ownership of the fort also changed hands.
Today Mong Ha Fort has been converted into a public park. There are walkways to the old fortress walls. The fort itself has been converted for use as a heritage hotel and tourism training school. There is also a Portuguese restaurant managed by trainees.
Educational Restaurant at Mong Ha Fort (10 November, 2007)
Tim and Chooi Yoke at the cannon of Mong Ha Fort (10 November, 2007)
Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.
About this website
Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.
While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.