Angels praying, blowing horns and swinging incense censers flank a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary in the ruined granite facade of the former Jesuit Church of St Paul in Macau, China. Carvings on the 1620s facade are a unique if bizarre blend of Chinese, Roman Catholic and Portuguese colonial art that includes St Mary trampling a seven-headed hydra.
Ruins of St Paul’s, Santo António, Macau, China: a heavenly host of angels kneeling on clouds as they pray, blow horns and swing incense censers flanks a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary in a decorated niche in the ruined granite facade of the former Church of São Paulo, the only part of the structure to survive a disastrous fire in 1835. The facade presents a unique and bizarre gallery of Christian art mixing Portuguese colonial and Roman Catholic Jesuit themes with 17th century Chinese culture. It was built in the 1620s in Sino-Baroque style and sculpted by exiled Japanese Christians and local craftsmen, with most of the carvings featuring the Virgin Mary or Holy Mother defeating evil and protecting the Christian Church. The artworks include Saint Mary trampling a scaly hydra with seven heads and watching over the Church, in the form of a Portuguese galleon sailing amid sea monsters through a storm of sin. A hideous devil and a human skeleton representing Death lie impaled by arrows and the cultural mix also includes a dove with outstretched wings, palm trees and Classical columns. The former Jesuit Church of Saint Paul or Mater Dei was built for the Portuguese colonists who had started to arrive in Macau. At the time, it was one Asia’s largest churches, but the fortunes of both the hilltop religious complex and Macau itself declined due to competition from nearby Hong Kong and the 1835 fire during a typhoon left it in ruins. Calls in the early 1990s for the dangerously leaning structure to be demolished were ignored in favour of excavations that revealed the church’s crypt and foundations. Many religious artefacts were found, together with relics of Chinese Christian martyrs. The facade is now buttressed with concrete and steel and its crumbling openings supported by round arches.
Size: 2581px × 2581px
Location: Ruins of St Paul’s, Santo António, Macau, China.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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