Well this is a turn up for the books. The picture above was featured last month on Flickr’s blog. That meant it got big exposure and saw thousands of people visit my websites and photographs. The picture itself was taken in the city of Macau, in the south of China, in October 2007. It is of the Ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Macau. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
St. Pauls Cathedral in Macau was founded sometime between 1582 to 1602. It was run by Portuguese Jesuits. It was the largest Catholic church in Asia at the time. This meant that the Cathedral was often to focus of gifts from foreign leaders who were seeking favour of the Catholic Church. In the 1800′s, the nearby British controlled colony of Hong Kong, overtook Macau as the centre of trade in the area. The fortunes of Macau gradually dwindled and with it, the fortunes of the cathedral. A fire during a typhoon in 1835 distroyed the building leaving only the outer walls standing. The cathedral remains in this ruinous state today. In 2005, the Ruins of St. Paul were officially enlisted as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Macau. Today, the ruins are one of Macau’s most famous landmarks.
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