St Anthony's Church, Macau

St Anthony's Church (9 November 2007)


St Anthony's Church, or Igreja de Santo António, Macau, is one of the oldest churches in Macau. The church stands on the site of a chapel that was built in 1558. It was then rebuilt in stone 1638, but burnt down in 1809. The church was then rebuilt the next year, in 1810, and once again in 1875.

The present St Anthony's Church, built in the Neoclassical style, dates to 1930. Its façade and tower dates to 1940. The Portuguese community in Macau likes to have their weddings here, giving rise to a Chinese nickname for the church, Fa Vong Tong, or Church of Flowers. Another fire necessitated restoration to be carried out again in 1930 and further work was done on the facade and tower in 1940.

St Anthony's Church is named after St Anthony of Padua, near Venice in Italy. Incidentally I visited the mother church, the Basilica di Sant' Antonio in Padua where the saint's remains are kept. In Macau, St. Anthony is the patron saint of seafarers. On his feast days, his statue would be carried by a regiment of soldiers on a platform around the city.


St Anthony's Church façade (9 November 2007)

Getting there

Buses that pass by the St Anthony's Church include No. 8A, 17, 18, 19 and 26.

Inside St Anthony's (9 November 2007)


Altar to Christ (9 November 2007)


Altar to St Anthony? (9 November 2007)


Main altar (9 November 2007)


San Antonio church in Padua, Italy (22 April 2008)

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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.

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