Municipal Affairs Bureau

This guide to the Municipal Affairs Bureau in Macau opens with a strange fact: for sixty years after 1580, when Spain's King Philip II inherited the Portuguese crown, Macau's senate refused to fly a Spanish flag or recognize the new authority, even as every other Portuguese territory fell in line. It traces how this small trading port on the South China coast held its ground through the Iberian Union, and what happened when Portugal finally broke free decades later. The current building dates only to 1784, long after the standoff, but it houses the same institution whose defiance the city never forgot. Look for the commemorative plaque in the entrance hall, ordered by a Portuguese king.