world heritage at malacca

Melaka is one of the historic cities built along the Straits of Melaka. The city has been developed over 500 years of the mixture of trading and cultural exchanges between East and West traders. The influences of Asia and Europe have endowed the towns with a specific multicultural heritage that is both tangible and intangible. With its government buildings, churches, squares and fortifications, Melaka demonstrates the early stages of this history originating in the 15th-century Malay sultanate and the Portuguese and Dutch periods beginning in the early 16th century. The Stadthuys was one of the official residences for the Dutch Governor but now has become one of the famous attractions for visitors from all over the world.
The legacy of the Dutch is still very much alive and felt in Malacca in a form of a red building called the Stadthuys. It used to be the administrative centre of successive governments but now it is a history museum. The Stadthuys can be easily found as it is just beside the Christ Church. Opposite the Stadthuys is the famous Jonker Street visited by many tourists. The Stadhuys is an evidence of a fine Dutch architecture. The building is so firmly made that even with little alteration and maintenances, it still stands firmly and upright. This shows that the Dutch had a great knowledge about the making of architecture. There are many tourists’ shops along the walls of the Stadhuys. From the roof of the Stadhuys, one can see a great view of the Christchurch.
The Stadthuys was built between 1641 and 1660 on the ruins of a fort which belongs to the Portuguese. It is believed that the Stadthuys is the oldest Dutch building in the East. This massive red building displays all the common features of the Dutch colonial architecture which includes substantial solid doors and louvered windows. Since its completion to 1980, the Stadthuys was used as the administrative centre of successive governments for a period of 300 years. It was in 1982 when the