St. Paul's Church / Gereja St. Paul

St. Paul's Church was built in 1521 and was built by the Portuguese together with St. Paul's Castle. It is the oldest church built by Europeans in Southeast Asia. Because the famous missionary Saint Francis was buried here, a statue of Father Saint Francis was erected in front of the church. The whole body of the statue is white, and the carving is very realistic, but there is no right hand. According to legend, the Dutch did not believe that the Portuguese missionary was invincible after death, so they dug up his body and cut off his right hand, resulting in profuse bleeding. The terrified Dutch therefore sanctified him and erected a statue of him in front of the church. Every weekend, the Dutch descendants of Malacca will come here to worship him.

The church is located on a high ground, so after the Dutch occupied Malacca, they used the church as a castle. St. Paul's Church, which has been through the war, has broken tiles, many bullet holes on the outer wall, and even the roof was blown to pieces during the war. So the Dutch built another church, and St. Paul's Church became the cemetery of the Dutch nobles. Now the stone slabs erected in the church with Latin and Portuguese written on them are the tombstones of the nobles back then.