The Protestant Cemetery: Morrison Chapel and Early Visitors

The Protestant Cemetery opened in 1821 and was first called the East India Company Cemetery. Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China, asked the Company to petition the Macao authorities after his wife died in the city that year. The new burial ground became the first Protestant cemetery in Macao.

The municipal government prohibited burial within the urban area in 1857, and the cemetery closed. Its grounds have remained intact. The dates distinguish a living burial place from the preserved site visible today, while the first name recalls the commercial institution that helped establish it.

Morrison Chapel stands at the front of the cemetery. Built with the burial ground, it was Macao’s first Protestant preaching place and was rebuilt in 1922 in a Romanesque style. Its whitewashed walls, buttresses and timber roof mark the entrance.

Behind the chapel are the graves of British merchants, officials and Protestant missionaries. The painter George Chinnery and missionary Robert Morrison are buried here. The chapel faces the street; the burial ground continues behind it.

White Dove Square links the cemetery to the park and former villa nearby. Together, these places show different ways a city remembers: a preserved burial ground, a public space still used by residents and a reused residence now serving a cultural foundation. Their proximity is the story’s strongest and most verifiable thread.