It’s not that Rome is too expensive to go, but Macau is more cost-effective? The global replication of the holy city of Rome

One of the symbols of Macau and a famous attraction, the Ruins of St. Paul's Archway, is located in front of Fort Hill. Its predecessor was St. Paul's Church built by the Portuguese in the early 17th century. It was destroyed by a fire during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, leaving only a memorial archway.

In addition, the Portuguese landed in Macau for maritime trade in the early 16th century, and later during the formal colonial rule, they built a church on the hills of Guia Hill, Guia Hill, and A-Ma Hill in Macau, and divided the small Macau into seven major Christian parishes.

Building churches on several hills in a city is not unique to Macau, and there are just seven of them, which sounds familiar. Another city with a similar urban construction style is Goa, a city on the west coast of India that was once a Portuguese colony.

If we cross the mountains and seas and go to the distant west coast of the European continent, the capital of Portugal, Lisbon, we will find that the highland urban architectural styles of Goa and Macau are somewhat similar to here, and the saying of seven hills just fits the image of the Roman holy city known as the "City of Seven Hills".



One of the symbols of Macau and a famous attraction, the Ruins of St. Paul's Archway, is located in front of Fort Hill. Its predecessor was St. Paul's Church built by the Portuguese in the early 17th century. It was destroyed by a fire during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, leaving only a memorial archway.

In addition, the Portuguese landed in Macau for maritime trade in the early 16th century, and later during the formal colonial rule, they built a church on the hills of Guia Hill, Guia Hill, and A-Ma Hill in Macau, and divided the small Macau into seven major Christian parishes.

Building churches on several hills in a city is not unique to Macau, and there are just seven of them, which sounds familiar. Another city with a similar urban construction style is Goa, a city on the west coast of India that was once a Portuguese colony.

If we cross the mountains and seas and go to the distant west coast of the European continent, the capital of Portugal, Lisbon, we will find that the highland urban architectural styles of Goa and Macau are somewhat similar to here, and the saying of seven hills just fits the image of the Roman holy city known as the "City of Seven Hills".





Portugal, located on the Iberian Peninsula and with a small land area, was ruled by the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BC, and later experienced the rule of the Germanic Empire and the Arab Empire. It was not until the 15th century that it began to rise through the great maritime discoveries and became a maritime empire that once dominated the world.

From the historical trajectory of the development and construction of several cities, we can see that as Portugal's colonial power developed around the world, it also added the concept of rebuilding the glory of Rome, "replicating" the city of Rome in many colonies, and extending the image of the "City of Seven Hills".

Building highland castles, churches and forts, and building local urban road network blocks according to the ideal urban model of Rome, also carried out military defense in this way, suppressed the resistance of local culture, spread religious culture, achieved colonial rule, and ensured the development of maritime trade.

Therefore, in addition to the city construction of the capital Lisbon, which fully imitated the city of Rome, Portugal also built its colonial stronghold Goa in India into a "holy city of the East" and "Rome on the water". Similar places include Rio de Janeiro, Malacca, Macau and other places.




Replicating the holy city of Rome was the ideal of the Roman Empire and Portugal, but the reality was cruel. With the development of history, coupled with the conflicts and resistance of various local civilizations, when the power of the Roman Empire and Portugal as maritime hegemons declined, it was undoubtedly a delusion to rebuild the holy city in a distant foreign land and use it to influence and rule the world.

The Lisbon earthquake in 1755 extinguished Portugal's Roman ideal; Goa, once an important maritime trade base for Portugal in the East and once prosperous, has long been in decline; Macau's urban construction is also due to the profound traditional background of Chinese civilization and the management of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it cannot completely replicate the "ideal city" system of Rome, and gradually declined with the transfer of economic centers.



The book "Moving Holy Cities: Hidden Biographies of Four Eurasian Cities" analyzes the construction and history of four cities in different countries and regions of Eurasia, namely Rome, Lisbon, Goa and Macau, through rich and detailed historical materials, and explores their internal connections. It is like looking at the world from a God's perspective, peeking into the evolution of Rome's urban construction and religious civilization development history, as well as the impact changes on overseas regions and the cultural conflicts between the East and the West it faces.

It can be seen that the replication and expansion of cities is also a process of cultural output and conquest. The construction style system of a city is determined by its rulers, and behind it is a country's national strength and historical and cultural heritage.