Tamagnini Barbosa 台山區

History

In the 1920s the area lay well outside the city, and the government set it aside for hazardous manufacturing, so every firecracker factory moved here. The largest, the Toi San firecracker works (台山電光炮廠), employed several hundred workers. In 1925, on its fifteenth day in Macau, the factory exploded and burned, killing about 150 people and injuring more than 300, most of them women workers. The disaster was so long remembered that the factory's name, Toi San, became the name of the district. The government then ordered all firecracker factories to move to Taipa (氹仔), and the site became a village of wooden shacks.

In 1929 fire destroyed the shacks. Charities raised money to rehouse the several hundred people left homeless, and in 1931 more than 900 brick houses were built in eleven orderly streets and let cheaply to poor families. The estate was named Bairro Tamagnini Barbosa (巴波沙坊) after the governor of Macau, the same name the district carries in Portuguese. From the late 1980s the low houses were gradually replaced by new apartment blocks, and the estate's stone memorial arch was rebuilt in 1999.

What to see

The rebuilt Bairro Tamagnini Barbosa memorial arch (巴坡沙坊牌坊) is the district's reminder of the 1931 estate. Everyday landmarks include Toi San Market (台山街市) and the Tamagnini Barbosa Sports Centre (巴波沙體育中心). Tamagnini Barbosa belongs to Our Lady of Fatima Parish, and the Zheng Guanying Official School (鄭觀應公立學校) in the district was formerly the Luso-Chinese primary school named after Tamagnini Barbosa.

Highlights

• Bairro Tamagnini Barbosa memorial arch 巴坡沙坊牌坊: Stone arch of the 1931 relief housing estate, rebuilt in 1999.
• Toi San Market 台山街市: Municipal market in the district.