Windows, Doors and Pillars of our Nearest Neighbor

As an add-on to my journey of exploration of the remnants' of Macau's search for spirituality, I decided that it might be interesting to sample some of the windows, doors, pillars and columns of our nearest neighbor.

The journey started right at the heart of Taipa. The clock shows 10.30 a.m.

The white clock tower, arches, Corinthian columns and green windows show typical 19th century neo-classic style first started by Christopher Wren of England, but with a Portuguese flavor.

Flowers in floral-pattern cast iron cages at the bottom of barricaded windows of a public building in green look quite Mediterranean. These are the windows to the Town Library.

All three types of window style are visible in the photo below: 19th century European neo-classical style to the left, contemporary alluminium and glass windows in the middle and typical Mediterranean style with triangular awning to lead water away from the tops of the window sills with places for potted flowers in the middle or the bottom for the building at the lower right and over the roof of the Senao. we see the fiery windows of the rebuilt tower of the oldest casino in Macau.  .

An overview showing the general lay out of the buildings of the Largo de Senado (Senate Square).

The arched windows with brown wooden frames at one of the buildings of the Largo de Senado.

Arched windows like the ones above but shuttered with wooden sun-shades in blue green

Arched windows with floral pattern metal guards at their bottom and bluish green wooden shutters.

Mock Norman-style wooden lattice and shutters in typical painted dark brown and greyish white obviously as modern commercial modification in typical post-modern fashion.

A sample of modification of the traditional windows for use as a display window. One can see that the wooden shutters have been retained but are now painted in a color with a more contemporary and feminine feel.

Some obviously contemporary modifications to the traditional verandah window style in a nearby restaurant.


 

Further examples of contemporary modification the of windows for use of the building as a hotel cum restaurant. It is obvious that the glass window panes have been replaced.

Some more traditional rectangular windows with triangular stucco water guards on top, a little further down the Largo de Senado.

A wood-shuttered rectangular window with triangular water guard on top in typical 19th century neo-classical style of the Santa Casa da Misericordia (Holy House of Mercy). 

Further wood-shuttered rectangular windows but with the top slightly curved instead of strictly horizontal.

Green and white metal lattice of slightly arched rectangular windows complete with green wooden shutters.

A quiet lane showing two similar but slightly altered types of rectangular windows.

A closer look at the windows of the building on the right of the little lane.I like the curved flower racks at the bottom of the window sills and the cobble-stoned apron below.  

The blue and brown verandah doors in the old colonial style in a run down building nearby, complete with floral pattern verandah railings

The corner of the same building formerly used as a mortgage finance company before the arrival of modern banking and concepts of corporate finance.  The same type of verandah door, railings, and color scheme etc.

Closer to the Ruins of the São Paulo Cathedral, I found some traditional wooden-shuttered windows painted brown within a white stucco frame but without the metal flower racks under them with 19th Century European style French-window type door.

Just as I was photographing the brown rectangular shuttered window framed in white, a taxi was turning a corner. Its yellow blended in perfectly with the yellow wall on the right. So I pressed the shutter.

Opposite to the building in the former photo, we find some rather more modern looking rectangular windows. The lines have become much simpler and more minimalist. They were the windows of a commercial art gallery.

A closer look at three of the corner windows.

My attention was caught by some reflections. When I took a closer look, I found some natural paintings! All done for me and framed too!

One of the two framed "paintings"!

The original "model" for the painting!

However, at the side of the first building, my eyes were caught by something unusually old and dilapidated and even downright "rotten". But it had a charm all its own.

When I was close to the top of the side street leading up to the Ruins of São Paulo Cathedral, I discovered another framed picture of the people coming down the steps in front of the Cathedral façade!

And another abstract painting!

The door to heaven?  Sunlight on the  ground. The threshold seems pretty low! And both the door and its threshold are in green too, the color of hope! This is actually the door of the St. Dominic Church!

In the meantime, I was beckoned rather urgently by another kind of door, that to my stomache!

After lunch, I started on my main dish, having completed my hors d'oeuvre in the form all those windows and doors. I concentrated on the principal object of my trip: the churches. This is where I was heading for.

After going to the São Paulo, I wanted to visit some of the other churches. But I could not abandon my distraction altogether. So here are the windows of the St. Augustine Church, in traditional rectangles framed in white or by slabs of granite, complete with green wooden shutters.

The main gates to the St. Jospeph's Seminary and Chapel (Igleha  y Seminario de São José)

On the way down from the Ruins of the São Paulo, how could my attention fail to be caught by this relic from the past? Correios ( Mails?). I do know that in Spanish "correo" means mail.  What a lovely mail box/stamp booth. Encourages you to write, if only just to have an envelope get into more intimate contact with this piece of exquisite and lively artifact!

The journey ends with these two corridors down the path of time!

And this one leading up to the God of São Paulo!