The Leal Senado Building ( Portuguese for ''Loyal Senate'') was the seat of

Portuguese Macau Portuguese Macau (officially the Province of Macau until 1976, and then the Autonomous Region of Macau from 1976 to 1999) was a Portuguese colony that existed from the first official Portuguese settlement in 1557 to the end of colonial rul ...

's government (

Legislative Assembly of Macau The Legislative Assembly of the Macau Special Administrative Region (; ) is the organ of the legislative branch of Macau. It is a 33-member body comprising 14 directly elected members, 12 indirectly elected members representing functional co ...

and

Municipal Council of Macau Municipal Council of Macau, officially known as the Leal Senado ( Portuguese for ''Loyal Senate''), was the local government structure in Macau (similar to city councils) during Portuguese colonial rule. The title ''Leal Senado'' was bestowed on M ...

). It is located at one end of the Senado Square in São Lourenço,

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 pop ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. It currently houses Macau's

Municipal Affairs Bureau The Municipal Affairs Bureau (; pt, Instituto para os Assuntos Municipais) of Macau is an administrative body without political powers responsible for providing certain civic services for the special administrative region and is the successor ...

Name

The title was bestowed on Macau's government in 1810 by Portugal's

prince regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illne ...

João João is the Portuguese equivalent of the given name John. The diminutive is Joãozinho and the feminine is Joana. It is widespread in Portuguese-speaking countries. Notable people with the name are enumerated in the sections below. Kings ...

, who later became King

John VI of Portugal , house = Braganza , father = Peter III of Portugal , mother = Maria I of Portugal , birth_date = , birth_place = Queluz Palace, Queluz, Portugal , death_date = , death_place = Bemposta Palace, Lisbon, Portuga ...

. This was a reward for Macau's loyalty to

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 th ...

, which refused to recognise

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

’s sovereignty during the

Philippine Dynasty The Philippine dynasty ( pt, dinastia filipina), also known as the House of Habsburg in Portugal, was the third royal house of Portugal. It was named after the three Habsburg Spanish kings, all named Philip (; , ), who ruled Portugal between 1 ...

that it occupied Portugal, between 1580 and 1640. A plaque ordered by the king commemorating this can still be seen inside the entrance hall.

History

A Chinese-style Pavilion used to stand on the site of Leal Senado building. That building was then a meeting place for the Portuguese and the Chinese officials, and where the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

government would announce regulations to Macau. The Portuguese planned to buy the pavilion as early as 1583, as well as some Chinese houses behind it. However, it wasn't until 1784 that the Portuguese government finally purchased it at a price of 80,000 taels. The Leal Senado building itself was built after the purchase, and became the center of Macau's politics since then. Portuguese rallies and celebrations were also held here. Although built in 1784, it was in a style similar to plain style from 14th- to 15th-century Portugal than the

Pombaline style The Pombaline style was a Portuguese architectural style of the 18th century, named after Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, the first Marquês de Pombal, who was instrumental in reconstructing Lisbon after the earthquake of 1755. Pombal super ...

that was popular at the time when the Leal Senado was built. A number of institutions were affiliated to the building, including a museum of

Luís Vaz de Camões Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

, a post office, a court and a prison, yet all had moved elsewhere. It was completely refurbished in 1904. In 1936 the building was damaged again by another typhoon. After the

handover of Macau The transfer of sovereignty of Macau (; pt, Transferência da soberania de Macau) from Portugal to the People's Republic of China (PRC) occurred on 20 December 1999. Macau was settled by Portuguese merchants in 1557, during the Ming dynasty ...

in 1999 it became the headquarters of the

Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau The Municipal Affairs Bureau (; pt, Instituto para os Assuntos Municipais) of Macau is an administrative body without political powers responsible for providing certain civic services for the special administrative region and is the successor ...

. It became part of the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

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 ...

Historic Centre of Macau in 2005.

Features

The building is U-shaped. The right part of the first floor of the building features an exhibition hall, hosting art exhibitions on a regular basis. The convention hall is on the second floor, where the public meetings and press conferences of the former Macau Municipal Council and the current Institute of Civic and Municipal Affairs are held. A public library, opened in 1929, is located at the Northwestern part of the first floor. It is blueprinted after the library of Mafra Convent in Portugal, decorated in classical style. It contains around 18,500 books and specialises in collecting foreign language books in dating from 17th century to the 1950s, in particular those of Portuguese history in Africa and the Far East. The building has retained all its original master walls and primary layout, including the courtyard garden in the back.

Gallery

Image:Leal Senado Inside.jpg, Inside the main entrance, the title granted to Macau by King João IV is displayed. Image:Edifício do Instituto para os Assuntos Cívicos e Municipais.jpg, Office building of the former Legislative Assembly of Macau File:Wongwt 民政總署大樓 (17286737075).jpg, A statue of

in the back garden

References

*Shipp, Steve: ''Macau, China: A Political History of the Portuguese Colony's Transition to Chinese Rule''

External links