HISTORY

History Place in Melaka

In the second day, we go visit the historical place in Melaka, that are Fort A Famosa, Maritime Museum, Palace of Malacca's Malay Sultanate, St. Paul's Church, Christ Church. Maritime Museum, replica of the Frol de la mar ship, Malacca. Fort A Famosa attracted millions of tourists to Malacca every year. So for that day we know many kind of culture, region and most of all, the fantastic of Melaka Historical Town. Below are the history about the place there we visit and most like....

The Stadthuys, Museum UMNO Melaka, Replica of the Frol de la mar ship, Malacca

A Famosa

A Famosa is a fortress located in Banda Hilir, Malacca in Malaysia. A Famosa is commonly pronounced as “ei Famosa” although the actual pronounciation is “ah Famosa”. It also means “The Famous” in Portuguese.

Banda Hilir has gone through a major revamp in the past 500 years. No matter what change happens in Banda Hilir, Fort A Famosa stands still for the past 500 years watching the Portuguese era, Dutch era, British era and Malaysia Independence era. Fort A Famosa stands still in daylight or moonlight and rain or shine, glowing and shining at its magnificent original structure left 500 years ago for the mankind to wonder and appreciate history.

Fort A Famosa is situated in Banda Hilir, neighbouring Melaka Palace Museum, Girls Primary Convent (SRK Sacred Heart Convent), Guys Secondary Convent (SMK St. Francis Xavier) and a walking distance from Melaka Equatorial Hotel. The Famous “Padang Pahlawan” has been replaced with a shopping mall for tourist.

The fortress was billed by Portuguese under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque in 1511. The fort consists of four major towers, once upon a time. Inside the fortress walls, lived a village in town houses. As time passed, Malacca’s population grew and extension was added to the original fort.

Yesterday or today, the only obsession which never ends is the war between people, country and nations. In 1641, the fort changed hands to the Dutch. Dutch maintained the fort and did some renovation to the fort in 1670.

The fortress had to go through another change of hands before knowing its final destiny. In 19th century, the Dutch handed the fort to British as prevention over Napoleon’s conquering from France. Unfortunately, the British ordered for fortress destruction in 1806. Sir Stamford Raffles wrote the final destiny of the fortress because of his obsession for history and spared us a small part of the fortress which is called Fort A Famosa untill today.

Christ Church

Christ Church is the oldest functioning Protestant church in Malaysia. Construction began in 1741 on the centennial of the Dutch occupation, and it was completed in 1753. Before this date the Dutch used the old Portuguese church atop St. Paul's hill for their religious services.

Christ Church bears all the hallmarks of 18th-century Dutch architecture: a rectangular plan, massive walls, red granite plinths, and Dutch roof tiles. The ceiling is 12.2 meters above the floor and the roof beams are each cut from a single tree. The building's footprint is a perfect 2:1 proportion: 27 meters on the long end and 13 meters on the short. The pews are original, and so are the windows, but were reduced in size by the British in the 19th century.

The church is notable for some unusual objects in the interior (regrettably, photography is not permitted). The church bell is inscribed with the date 1698, suggesting that it was used for another purpose before the completion of the church. Most bizarre are tombstones incorporated into the floor of the church. The tombstones are written in Portuguese and were originally in St. Paul's Church inside the Portuguese fortress. However, they were removed by the Dutch when they occupied Melaka in 1641. Since it is unlikely that the highly religious Dutch would have used Catholic tombstones inside a Protestant church, historians surmise that they were installed there by the British.