Sir Robert Ho Tung Library — Attraction in São Lourenço

This member of the Historic Centre of Macau World Heritage collection originally served as a place of residence, first for Dona Carolina Cunha, for whom the building was originally constructed back in 1894 and then for the Sir Robert Ho Tung, a Hong Kong businessman for which the building takes its present name.

Sir Robert Ho purchased the property in 1918 and used it as a summer residence until the outbreak of WWII, which saw him relocate here from Hong Kong between 1941 and 1945. Upon his death in 1955, he passed the building onto the Macau Government to be used as a public library.

You can visit this attraction, which has a beautiful front courtyard setting with lawn chairs for resting. Walking through the library entrance into the back courtyard, you will find a bit of a rustic garden of sorts that is very peaceful and inviting. A sufficient area is set aside with tables and chairs and there are bathroom facilities as well as public self-service lockers, which are available to locals who are using the upstairs library facilities. While we haven't tried them, it seems that visitors should be able to use these lockers as well.

Of interest, during our recent visit, we discovered a very strong wifi signal and fast access speed using the free Wifi Go internet service provided by the Macau Government at certain hot spots around the city.

Overall, Sir Robert Ho Tung only take 5-10 minutes to visit the ground level and probably best serves as a relaxing and peaceful place to rest your feet if you've been touring many of the World Heritage attractions all day. The library is open 10.00am to 7.00pm Monday to Saturday and 11.00am to 7.00 on Sunday but we've found it closed on...

The Holy Mary sculpture , located next to the Ho Tung Library, is colored, but not too bright and you can she don't wear shoes, it was because Western thought that─saint must be dressed up plain. You can see the sculpture, mainly is white, that was another Western concept─white represent pure and sacred. Notice the expression on her face, she is smiling and looks kindly. She also opens her arms just like welcome to everyone. Everything shows that she is a kind person and hopefully affect others to make...

We were visiting the St. Augustine's church, when we spotted this library. The gate opens to a garden and a ground floor where are tables and chairs where you can rest.

The library has several floors which you can access via a lift or by stairs. There are reading materials in both English and Chinese. They have quite a collection of books, films, and magazines. It seems to be a very inviting place to spend a quiet afternoon...