The Ruins of St. Paul's constitute a stone facade standing alone after fire destroyed the church behind it in 1835. Construction began in 1602. The front wall reaches approximately 25 meters high and displays Jesuit iconography combining Catholic saints with Chinese chrysanthemum and peony carvings. Behind the facade, excavated crypts hold bones of Japanese and Vietnamese martyrs. The site sits at the top of a stone staircase in the São Lázaro district. Adjacent stands the Mount Fortress, built between 1617 and 1626, which now houses the Macau Museum explaining 400 years of settlement through ceramics, documents, and reconstructed street scenes.
Senado Square forms a wave-patterned mosaic plaza measuring approximately 3,700 square meters in the central Sé district. Portuguese builders laid the black and white stones in patterns that remain the pedestrian center of colonial architecture. The Leal Senado Building anchors the north end, constructed in 1784 as the municipal chamber, painted yellow with white trim and green shutters following neoclassical proportions. The Senate library inside holds books dating to the 17th century. St. Dominic's Church stands at the square's eastern edge, built in 1587 by Spanish Dominican friars with a cream and green baroque facade. The interior holds a Sacred Art Treasury displaying silver chalices and embroidered vestments from the 1600s through 1800s.
A-Ma Temple occupies the southwestern peninsula tip where Portuguese sailors first landed in the 1550s. Construction predates Portuguese arrival by at least a century, with pavilions built across multiple levels on the hillside. The name Macau derives from "A-Ma-Gau," meaning "Bay of A-Ma." Stone lions carved in the Ming Dynasty guard entrances. The Memorial Arch pavilion sits at the entrance, followed by the Prayer Hall, then the Hall of Benevolence at the highest point. Incense coils hang from ceilings, burning for weeks. Inscribed rocks along the path date to 1828 and earlier.
Guia Fortress sits at 91 meters on the peninsula's highest natural point. Military engineers completed the fort in 1638. Guia Chapel inside dates to 1622 and preserves the only frescoes in Macau combining Western and Chinese artistic techniques in their original condition. One fresco shows a Madonna wearing Chinese robes. The lighthouse beside the chapel, built in 1865, was the first modern lighthouse on the Chinese coast, still operational with its original rotating mechanism. A cable car runs from Flora Garden to the summit, covering 186 meters of track.
Lou Kau Mansion demonstrates Cantonese residential architecture from approximately 1889. Lou Kau was a merchant who built wealth through trade. The two-story compound contains tranquil interior courtyards surrounded by brick walls with decorative window tracery. Wood carvings in the reception halls show grapevines and bats symbolizing prosperity and good fortune. Clay sculptures decorate roof ridges. The interior layout follows traditional feng shui principles with specific rooms for ancestors, family, and servants occupying designated positions relative to cardinal directions.
Mandarin's House, built around 1869, was home to Zheng Guanying, a merchant and author whose book "Words of Warning to an Affluent Age" influenced reformers including Sun Yat-sen. The compound exceeds 4,000 square meters across multiple courtyards connecting over 60 rooms. Gray brick walls reach two stories with Indian-style louvered windows painted green. The Moon Gate separates formal and private family areas. Courtyards contain granite water basins and potted plants. Restoration completed in 2010 revealed original wall paintings and decorative tile work that had been covered for decades.
The Macau Tower reaches 338 meters from base to top. Construction finished in 2001. An observation deck at 223 meters allows 360-degree views spanning the Pearl River Delta. On clear days, visibility extends to Lantau Island in Hong Kong, approximately 60 kilometers distant. The tower offers a skywalk around the outer rim at 233 meters and a bungee jump from 233 meters that held the Guinness record for highest commercial bungee from a building. The mast above the observation levels holds telecommunications equipment.
Taipa Village preserves narrow streets lined with two-story shophouses painted yellow, green, and blue. Rua do Cunha, the main pedestrian street, measures approximately 115 meters long and contains shops selling pork chop buns and egg tarts. The Taipa Houses Museum consists of five mint-green colonial houses built in 1921 for Portuguese families. Interiors display period furniture, photographs showing Taipa when it was still a separate island, and kitchenware from Macanese households. The Museum of Taipa and Coloane History occupies a former municipal building from 1920 with exhibits on the islands' fishing and farming economy before casino development.