Malacca Heritage Walk: A Walking Route Through the UNESCO Zone
The Malacca Heritage Walk is the spine of the UNESCO World Heritage zone, inscribed in 2008 jointly with George Town, Penang. The historic core packs four centuries of Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial rule into roughly one square kilometre, layered on top of an earlier Chinese and Malay trading settlement. You can walk the lot in 90 minutes, but the route rewards a slow half-day with stops inside the buildings. This is the walking sequence that makes chronological sense, from the river crossing eastward.
Dutch Square: The Red Anchor
Start at Dutch Square, also called the Red Square for the deep terracotta paint on its two main buildings. The Stadthuys, built by the Dutch in 1650 as the governor's residence and administrative office, is the oldest surviving Dutch building in the East. Today it holds the History and Ethnography Museum, entry RM20 for adults. Next door, Christ Church, completed in 1753, is the oldest functioning Protestant church in Malaysia. The pews are original, hand-cut from ironwood, and the floor tiles were imported from Holland. The Tang Beng Swee Clocktower in the centre of the square is a 19th-century addition, also painted red to match.
St. Paul's Hill and the Church Ruins
Walk up the stairs behind the Stadthuys to reach St. Paul's Hill, the highest ground in the old town. The summit holds the roofless ruins of St. Paul's Church, originally a Portuguese Catholic chapel built in 1521, later rededicated by the Dutch and abandoned by the British in favour of Christ Church below. The interior is paved with carved tombstones of Portuguese and Dutch colonists, including a memorial to Francis Xavier, the Jesuit missionary who preached here in the 1540s. His body was briefly interred in the church before being moved to Goa. The view from the summit takes in the Strait of Malacca and the rooftops of the heritage zone.
A Famosa and the Porta de Santiago
Descend the far side of the hill toward the coast and you reach Porta de Santiago, the only surviving gate of A Famosa, the Portuguese fortress built in 1512 after Afonso de Albuquerque captured the city. The full fort once enclosed the entire hillside and was the strongest European fortification in Asia. The British nearly demolished it in 1806, intending to hand a gutted Malacca over to the Dutch, but Sir Stamford Raffles, passing through, persuaded them to spare the gate. What stands today is a single small gatehouse of laterite block, free to walk through and photograph. The Middelburg Bastion, a Dutch addition from 1660, sits a few minutes' walk away at the river mouth.
Practical Details
- Address: Dutch Square and St. Paul's Hill, Jalan Gereja, 75000 Melaka, Malaysia
- Hours: Dutch Square open 24 hours. Stadthuys museum 9am to 5pm daily, closed Friday noon to 2.45pm. St. Paul's Church 8.30am to 6pm. Porta de Santiago open 24 hours
- Price: Free to walk the square and ruins. Stadthuys museum RM20 adult, RM10 child. Baba and Nyonya Heritage Museum RM18 adult, RM13 child
- Website: thesmartlocal.my/things-to-do-in-melaka