CHIJMES
Gothic heritage complex where a French convent once sheltered hundreds of foundlings, now a dining destination.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to CHIJMES in Singapore starts at the Gate of Hope, the small iron door where families once left infants for the French nuns of the Sisters of the Holy Infant Jesus to find at dawn. It follows Mother Saint Mathilde's 1854 convent and orphanage from its founding through the social beliefs that brought so many girls to that gate, including the case of a Straits Times story about a baby named Rosa in 1950. Along the way it traces the Gothic chapel's consecration and the decades that turned this convent into the courtyard you're standing in now.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
St Andrew's Cathedral
Gothic Revival cathedral built by convict labour, consecrated 1862, and used as an emergency hospital during WWII.
Cathedral of the Good Shepherd
Palladian-style National Monument whose name traces to a French martyr's final letter from Korea.
Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator
Oldest surviving Christian church in Singapore, built in 1836, with a memorial garden holding the grave of Agnes Joaquim.
CQ @ Clarke Quay
Restored colonial godowns turned riverside dining and nightlife precinct on the Singapore River.
The Fullerton Hotel Singapore
Neoclassical national monument on the Singapore River, once the colony's General Post Office.
Victoria Concert Hall
Colonial concert hall that served as a hospital, war crimes court, and National Monument.