Christ Church Malacca / St Paul's Church

 

Christ Church is an 18th-century Anglican church in the city of Malacca , Malaysia . It is the oldest functioning Protestant church in Malaysia and is within the jurisdiction of the Lower Central Archdeaconry of the Anglican Diocese of West Malaysia . 

The church is built in Dutch Colonial architecture style and is laid out in a simple rectangle of 82 feet (25 m) by 42 feet (13 m) . The ceiling rises to 40 feet (12 m) and is spanned by wooden beams , each carved from a single tree . The roof is covered with Dutch tiles and the walls were raised using Dutch bricks built on local laterite blocks then coated with Chinese plaster .

The original Dutch windows were reduced and ornamented after the British takeover of Malacca and the porch and vestry were built only in the mid-19th century .

A Famosa is a Portuguese fortress located in Malacca , Malaysia . It is among the oldest surviving European architectural remains in south east Asia . The Porta de Santiago , a small gate house , is the only part of the fortress which still remains today . In 1511, a Portuguese fleet arrived under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque . His forces attacked and defeated the armies of the Malacca Sultanate . Moving quickly to consolidate his gains , Albuquerque had the fortress built around a natural hill near the sea . Albuquerque believed that Malacca would become an important port linking Portugal to the Spice Route in China . At this time other Portuguese were establishing outposts in such places as Macau, China and Goa, India to create a string of friendly ports for ships heading to Ming China and returning home to Portugal .

St. Paul's Church is a historic church building in Malacca , Malaysia that was originally built in 1521, making it the oldest church building in Malaysia and Southeast Asia . It is located at the summit of St. Paul's Hill and is today part of the Malacca Museum Complex comprising the A Famosa ruins . In 1952, a statue of St. Francis Xavier was erected in front of the ruins of the church in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of his sojourn in Malacca. A day after the statue was consecrated, a large casuarina tree fell on it , breaking off its right arm . Incidentally , the right forearm of Xavier was detached in 1614 as a relic .