Home for new-borns on Taipa Island
- Calçada do Carmo, Taipa
- Not open to the public
Taipa memories
In the days when water transportation was the only option to travel between Taipa and Macao, this yellowish, baroque-style building located in Calcada do Carmo served as a maternity home for Taipa’s pregnant women. The maternity home provided its services free of charge, but for emergency deliveries the villagers still had to be ferried to the better equipped hospitals in Macao.
Nice to know
Prior to 1950s the building was a public school (the ‘Democratic school’) with classes in both Portuguese and Chinese languages. Many Taipa villagers have their roots here!
It took us a long time to find it because it was hidden in this long alley.
New born to old aged
With the opening of the Macao-Taipa Bridge, the need for maternity gradually disappeared. After it closed its doors, the pretty yellow building became a caritas home for the elderly, but since the late 1990’s its standing empty, waiting for a new use.