Malacca Attractions: Stadthuys, A Famosa and Cheng Hoon Teng

These five guides cover the heart of Malacca's old town, from the Portuguese gate and hilltop church ruin to the Dutch town hall, a Peranakan house museum and the country's oldest traditional Chinese temple. Fees are in Malaysian ringgit: a non-citizen adult pays RM20 for the PERZIM ticket that covers the Stadthuys museums, and the Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum charges adults RM25. A Famosa and St. Paul's Church are open-air sites with no posted ticket, and Cheng Hoon Teng's own website lists donation boxes rather than a ticket. Each guide gives that site's hours, fees and history, with the source for each figure.

Malacca attractions with visitor guides

Stadthuys

The Stadthuys is the red Dutch-era town hall on Dutch Square in Malacca City, built by the Dutch around 1650 as the office of the Dutch governor and deputy governor. Today it houses the History and Ethnography Museum, run by Perbadanan Muzium Melaka (PERZIM), which traces Malacca's story from its founding through the Portuguese, Dutch, British and Japanese periods to independence in 1957. It is open Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm (last entry 4:30 pm, closed Mondays); a non-citizen adult ticket costs RM20 and also covers the Education Museum, Literature Museum, TYT Museum and the Admiral Cheng Ho Gallery in the same complex.

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Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum

The Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum is a family-run house museum at 48 & 50 Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock in Malacca's UNESCO-listed old town, one street from Jonker Walk. It preserves the townhouse of the Peranakan (Straits Chinese) Chan family, furnished as a wealthy late-19th and early-20th-century home. It opens daily except Tuesday, and admission is RM25 for adults.

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A Famosa (Porta de Santiago)

A Famosa is the name visitors give to the Porta de Santiago, the one surviving gateway of the fortress the Portuguese built in Malacca after Afonso de Albuquerque captured the city in 1511. The weathered laterite gatehouse stands in Bandar Hilir at the edge of the hill the fort once enclosed, with the Dutch East India Company's bas-relief and the inscription 'ANNO 1670' over its arch. It is an open-air monument in Malacca's historic city, which UNESCO inscribed with George Town as the Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca on 7 July 2008, a listing that cites Melaka's Portuguese- and Dutch-era fortifications.

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St. Paul's Church

St. Paul's Church is the roofless ruin of a Portuguese-era church on the summit of St. Paul's Hill (Bukit Melaka) in the heart of old Malacca, a short walk up white stairs from Dutch Square and A Famosa. Inside the bare laterite walls stand rows of carved Portuguese and Dutch tombstones and the empty grave where St. Francis Xavier's body lay in 1553 before it was shipped to Goa; a white statue of the saint stands at the entrance, and the hilltop looks out over the town. The ruin is unfenced with no posted ticket, and no official body publishes opening hours for it.

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Cheng Hoon Teng Temple

Cheng Hoon Teng (青雲亭, 'Temple of Green Clouds') on Jalan Tokong in Malacca's old town is Malaysia's oldest traditional Chinese temple, founded in the 1600s by Kapitan Tay Kie Ki. It is still an active temple serving the San Chiao, the three teachings of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism, with its main hall dedicated to Guan Yin, the goddess of mercy. Its restoration won a UNESCO Asia-Pacific heritage conservation Award of Merit.

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Planning your visit to Malacca

Opening hours differ. The Stadthuys museums open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM, with last entry at 4:30 PM, and the Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum opens from 10:00 AM to 4:15 PM on weekdays and to 4:45 PM on weekends, closing every Tuesday. No official body publishes hours for A Famosa, St. Paul's Church or Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, so each guide explains what the sources say. All five sites are in Malacca's UNESCO-listed historic city: the Stadthuys stands on Dutch Square, St. Paul's Church crowns the hill above it, A Famosa stands at the edge of that hill in Bandar Hilir, and the museum and temple are in the old town on Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock and Jalan Tokong.