The Guia Fortress (; ) is a 17th-century colonial military

fort A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from La ...

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

, and

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

complex in São Lázaro,

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

. The complex is part of the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Historic Centre of Macau. 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 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 , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

to capture Macau from

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, 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 is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

or on the China coast. The lighthouse stands at Guia Hill, 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, 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,

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es 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 Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region (). UNESCO then issued a warning to the Macau government, which led former Chief Executive

Edmund Ho Edmund Ho Hau Wah, GML, GCM, GOIH (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 World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

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 Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Dr. Ming K. Chan () and professor at University of Macau 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