Museum of Sacred Art

Built at the bottom end of the inner area of the St. Paul's Ruins - in the place where the magnificent church and the College of the Mother of God were previously located - the Museum of Sacred Art and Crypt are evocative of the rich history of the missions in this region, the main source of which came from the College of St. Paul.

The Crypt has been built on the old site of the chancel of the original church (destroyed by a big fire in 1835). On the sidewalls the visitor can see the remains of the Japanese and Vietnamese martyrs. The list of their names can be found outside the Crypt. As a sacred spot, a cross and a tabernacle have been placed on the stones, facing an altar topped by a single marble stone.

In the room adjacent to the Crypt there is the Museum of Sacred Art, which includes objects of high historical and artistic value, dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries. It is worth noticing a beautiful collection of Sino-Portuguese crucifixes made of ivory, wood and silver, as well as a large number of liturgical vessels in silver (chalices, incense boats, patens, pyxides and reliquaries).

The statues and religious paintings are also very interesting many of them are in an Indo-Portuguese style. Visitors should notice St. Michael Archangel, of the 17th century (painted according western techniques and modelled on a Japanese disciple of the Jesuit Giovanni Nicollo), not only because of its antiquity and imposing figure but also because it is the only work from the original college that survived the fire.

In the centre of the room there is the unique silver picture frame which carried Our Lady of Remedies, distinguished by its neo-classical lines but also showing rococo motives.

Address: St. Paul's Ruins   
Opening hours: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (except Tuesday afternoon), no admission after 5:30 p.m. (Tuesdays: closed after 2 p.m. Open as usual on public holidays.)
Free admission 
Remarks: The visitor should also visit the area surrounding the Ruins as well as the Crypt-museum in order to observe the foundations of the original naves of the church, old graves and foundations of the old college.

source http://en.macaotourism.gov.mo/sightseeing/sightseeing_detail.php?c=2&id=21#.WDj99_mLTcc