A Famosa and St Paul's Hill

What remains of A Famosa is one gatehouse, the Porta de Santiago, a low block of laterite with a carved arch standing beside a busy road. The Portuguese built the fortress from about 1512, after taking the city in 1511, the Dutch rebuilt and re-marked the gate in the seventeenth century, and almost everything else was dismantled in the early nineteenth. Steps beside it climb St Paul's Hill to the shell of St Paul's Church, roofless since it was turned over to burials, its walls lined with heavy carved tombstones. From the terrace outside you look over the river mouth and the reclaimed land beyond. Excavation in the 2000s uncovered further bastion foundations nearby, now left open to view behind low railings.

History

A Portuguese fleet under Afonso de Albuquerque defeated the Malacca Sultanate in 1511, and the fortress was built around a hill by the sea from about 1512, with long ramparts and four great towers. Its tallest, a 60-metre keep, gave the whole fort its name - A Famosa, "the famous one" - and was the tallest building in the region until the Dutch, who took the city in 1641, pulled it down while enlarging the outer walls. In 1811 the British cleared away almost all the rest; only the Porta de Santiago gateway and the rebuilt Middelburg Bastion survive (Wikipedia, A Famosa).

What's there

• Porta de Santiago - the surviving laterite gatehouse with its carved stone arch.
• St Paul's Church - the roofless shell on the hilltop, open to the sky.
• The tombstones - heavy carved Dutch and Portuguese slabs propped along the church walls.
• The hilltop terrace - the view over the river mouth and the reclaimed shoreline.

When to go

Early morning, before about nine, is the only genuinely comfortable time, since the hill is unshaded and the stone throws back heat by mid-morning. Late afternoon works too, and the ruin catches good light near sunset. Weekends and school holidays bring coach groups from Kuala Lumpur and across the strait. Allow extra time if combining with the museums around Dutch Square.

Practical notes

The gate is genuinely small, and many visitors are surprised that a famous fortress amounts to one doorway on a traffic island. Buskers, costumed photo touts and souvenir stalls crowd both the gate and the hilltop. The climb is short but steep and completely exposed. The church shell is empty inside, so the interest is the tombstones and the view rather than any architecture.

Nearby

Dutch Square, the Melaka River walk and Jonker Street are all within ten minutes on foot.