St. Lazarus District

If the casinos and tourist crowds have you craving something more authentic, you have just found your reward. The St. Lazarus District is the quietest, most artistic, and arguably most beautiful neighbourhood in all of Macao. Narrow cobblestoned lanes wind between rows of pastel-coloured Portuguese townhouses, their shuttered windows draped with trailing plants. There are no neon signs here, no tour groups with megaphones, just the unhurried rhythm of a neighbourhood that has been living its own life for centuries. The district takes its name from the Church of St. Lazarus, which has stood at the top of the hill since 1570. Originally built to serve a leper colony established by the Jesuits, the church was rebuilt in the nineteenth century in a handsome Neo-Classical style. The area around it gradually became one of Macao's most desirable residential quarters, home to Macanese families, Portuguese civil servants, and Chinese merchants who all valued its hilltop breezes and relative tranquillity. Today, St. Lazarus has reinvented itself as Macao's creative quarter. Small art galleries occupy renovated ground-floor spaces, local designers have opened studios in former shophouses, and independent cafes serve excellent coffee in courtyards shaded by old banyan trees. The Albergue SCM, a...