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MALACCA

In the beginning, it was a simple fishing village inhabited by local Malays. The city was founded and named by Parameswara, a prince of an ancient Malay kingdom on the island of Sumatra, in 1400. Malacca was a powerful Sultanate which extended its rule over the southern Malay Peninsula and much of Sumatra. It was also an important point in the spread of Islam in the Malay Archipelago.

In the XVI century Malacca was the most important strategic base for the Portuguese expansion in the East Indies. The city was conquered on August 24, 1511 by Afonso De Albuquerque who had set sail in April 1511 from Goa (India) with a force of 1200 men and seventeen ships.

The Portuguese ruled Malacca from 1511 to 1641 when the Dutch captured the town with the help of the Sultan of Johore.

Malacca was ceded to the British in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 in exchange for Bencoolen on Sumatra. From 1826 to 1946 Malacca was governed, first by the British East India Company and then as a Crown Colony. It formed part of the Straits Settlements, together with Singapore and Penang. After the dissolution of this crown colony, Malacca and Penang became part of the Malayan Union, which later became Malaysia.

Still today, Malacca is the most important testimony of Portuguese presence in South East Asia.

Malacca's ethnic Portuguese population is the descendants of Portuguese colonists from the 16th and 17th centuries. Even to this day, many of the ancient traditions passed down since the Portuguese occupation are still practised, i.e. "Intrudu" from Portuguese word "Entrudo" (a water festival that marks the beginning of Lent, the Catholic fasting period), "branyu" (traditional dance), "Santa Cruz" (a yearly Festival of street celebrations).

The Portuguese colonists contributed dishes like Devil's Curry and Portuguese egg tarts to the town's already rich cuisine.

The historic centre of Malacca was inscribed on the World Heritage List on 7 July 2008

The picture shows one of the several Portuguese tombstones kept in the Church of St Paul. This church was constructed by the Portuguese captain Duarte Coelho and originally named "Our Lady of The Hill", but was later turned into a burial ground by the Dutch for their noble dead, and renamed "St. Paul's Church". Currently the church is part of the Malaccan Museums Complex. The body of St. Francis Xavier was interred here temporarily before it was taken to Goa, India.

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