Tap Seac Square

Welcome to the biggest public square in Macao, and one that tells you a great deal about how this city honours its past while building for the future. Tap Seac Square stretches out before you in a broad sweep of wave-patterned paving stones, the same undulating black-and-white mosaic design you find on the sidewalks of Lisbon and the famous Senado Square downtown. It is a Portuguese tradition called calcada portuguesa, and seeing it here in southern China is one of those wonderful reminders of the cultural thread that ties Macao to the other side of the world. This square was completed in 2007, designed by the celebrated Macanese architect Carlos Marreiros on the site of a former athletics stadium. But while the square itself is relatively new, the buildings that frame it are anything but. Look around and you will see a stunning collection of heritage architecture, the pale yellow Central Library, the Historic Archives of Macao, the Tap Seac Health Centre, and several other colonial-era buildings, all carefully restored and still serving their original civic purposes. What Marreiros achieved here is genuinely impressive. He created a modern public space that feels completely natural next to its century-old neighbours. The...