St. Paul's Hill is located in the city centre, opposite Mahkota Parade and behind Pahlawan Mall. It is easier to give directions to people by using shopping complexes as the landmarks.
You have to walk up the hill to reach the place where the St. Paul's Church is located. There should be more than one entrance. It is not that steep because I could see much older people climbing up the stairs, slowly of course.
The historic building was built by the Portugese in 1521 after Melaka was conquered in 1511. Then it was used by the Dutch in 1641 before it was turned into a burial ground and graveyard. Spooky! I would never want to go up here at night.
There were tombstones leaning against the wall with words engraved in a language I could not understand (which should be Dutch).
There is a statue in front of the church and it was only built in 1952. That lucky (or unlucky) man was St. Francis Xavier, the pioneer missionary to Malacca. If you observe the statue closely, you can see that the right arm is missing and it was not intentionally done, neither he was alive with a missing hand. Actually before they were trying to consecrate the statue, a tree fell and broke off the arms and it remains like that until now.
So that is all for our history lesson on Malacca for today. Hope it has been informative enough.
reference: http://www.malaysiavacationguide.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment