Pátio do Espinho, Macau — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Pátio do Espinho?

The Ruins of St. Paul's stand directly in front. Pátio do Espinho runs behind that façade and behind the Museum of Sacred Art, its northern half falling as a slope from Rua de D. Belchior Carneiro down toward San Seng Street, its southern half squeezed between the old city wall ruins and the same street. Walking is the way in.

No ticket office marks the edge of the only walled village left in the Santo António parish, and the boundary is read off the lanes and the enclosing streets instead.

What is the history of Pátio do Espinho?

Japanese Catholics settled here in the 1600s. That community walled a village into the slope behind what would become the Ruins of St. Paul's, and Pátio do Espinho is what remains of it, the only enclosure of its kind still standing in the Santo António parish. Rua de D. Belchior Carneiro came through the middle.

The village has been counted as two pieces ever since, one falling north toward San Seng Street and one held south against the old city wall ruins.

Where is Pátio do Espinho?

Rua de D. Belchior Carneiro cuts Pátio do Espinho, Chi Lam Wai in Chinese, in two on the Macau Peninsula: a northern slope falling to San Seng Street, and a southern strip held against the old city wall ruins.