The Guia Fortress ( pt, Fortaleza da Guia; ) is a 17th-century colonial military

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

, and lighthouse complex in

São Lázaro São Lázaro is the smallest civil parish ( pt, freguesia) of Macau, located in the central-east region of the Macau Peninsula. It is surrounded by the parishes of Nossa Senhora de Fátima, Santo António, and Sé. This parish was one of five ...

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a p ...

. The complex is part of the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

Historic Centre of Macau The Historic Centre of Macao, pt, Centro Histórico de Macau, , is a collection of over twenty locations that witness the unique assimilation and co-existence of Chinese and Portuguese cultures in Macau, a former Portuguese colony. It represents ...

. The view of the fortress and the lighthouse has been blocked by the

Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region The Macau Liaison Office, officially known as the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region ( (abbreviated: ); Portuguese: Gabinete de Ligação do Governo Central na RAEM) is the representative ...

since 2010. Local citizens and scholars criticised that such a case proved that the Macao government had ignored the conservation of heritage in urban planning.

Architecture

The fort and chapel were constructed between the 1622 and 1638. The fort was already partly built during the unsuccessful attempt by the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

to capture colonial Macau from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, providing an advantageous firing position for defending against naval attacks.

Lighthouse

The lighthouse was constructed between 1864 and 1865, the first western style lighthouse in the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

or on the China coast. The lighthouse stands at

Guia Hill Guia may refer to: * Guia (Albufeira), a parish in the municipality of Albufeira, Portugal * Guia (Pombal), a parish in the municipality of Pombal, Portugal * Guia Hill, one of the seven hills of Macau ** Guia Fortress, a historical military for ...

, which stands at tall, and has a light visible for some in clear weather conditions. The complex was built upon the highest point on the

Macau peninsula The Macau Peninsula is the most populous and historical part of Macau. It has an area of () and is geographically connected to Guangdong Province at the northeast through an isthmus wide. The peninsula, together with downtown Zhuhai, sits ...

, Guia Hill, and named after the same location. Today, the site is a tourist destination.

Chapel

The chapel (Portuguese: ''Capela de Nossa Senhora da Guia''; Chinese: 聖母雪地殿教堂) was built around 1622 inside the Guia Fortress. In 1998, frescoes were uncovered in the chapel during routine conservation work, representing both western and Chinese themes.

Threat

In 2007, local residents of Macao wrote a letter to

complaining about construction projects around the

Guia Lighthouse (focal height ), including the headquarter of the

(). UNESCO then issued a warning to the Macau government, which led former Chief Executive

Edmund Ho Edmund Ho Hau-wah, GOIH, GML, GCM (born 13 March 1955) is a Macau politician who served as the first Chief Executive of the Macau Special Administrative Region from 1999 to 2009. He currently serves as a Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Peopl ...

to sign a notice regulating height restrictions on buildings around the site. In 2015, the

New Macau Association The New Macau Association (AMN) is a major pro-democratic political party in the Chinese Special Administrative Region of Macau. The party was established in 1992 and the founding chairman was António Ng Kuok Cheong, who departed from the the ...

submitted a report to

claiming that the government had failed to protect Macao's cultural heritage against threats by urban development projects. One of the main examples of the report is that the headquarter of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government, which is located on the Guia foothill and obstructs the view of the Guia Fortress (one of the

world heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

s symbols of Macao). One year later, Roni Amelan, a spokesman from UNESCO press service, said that the UNESCO has asked China for information and is still waiting for a reply.Meneses, J. (2016). The Victory of Heritage. Macau Business, July 2016, pp.72-73. In 2016, the Macau government approved an construction limit for the residential project, which reportedly goes against the city's regulations on the height of buildings around world heritage site Guia Lighthouse. Professor at Stanford University Dr. Ming K. Chan () and professor at

University of Macau The University of Macau (UM; Portuguese: ''Universidade de Macau'', Chinese: 澳門大學) is an internationalised public comprehensive university in Macau. The UM campus is located in the east of Hengqin Island, Guangdong province in Mainland ...

Dr. Eilo Yu () commented the Guia Lighthouse case proved that the Macao government had ignored the conservation of heritage in urban planning.

References

External links