This is another one of the famous Bishop Gray’s churches dotted all over South Africa, but it seems according to the records that the Bishop was not that happy with the building process – goes to show that even in those early days architects were  hard to please.    Building work started in 1851 and lasted until 1854.

It is recorded that the church was not built in accordance with the approved plans as provided by the Bishop and his wife.  The cause of the dismay was apparently that the roof was lowered and the length of the church was decreased and some other nitty gritty stuff.  According to the Bishop this resulted that the Christ Church did not conform to the early English Churches, but stated that “still it is neat, well built and substantial”.

Although it is in desperate need of some paint and a bit of TLC and  whether it conforms to the standard of an English Church or not I still enjoyed finding it.

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The distinctive colour of the old city of Melaka

The church is built in the Dutch Colonial architecture style, which reminds me a lot of the buildings that we see in Cape Town, and is laid out in a simple rectangle . The ceiling rises to  12 meter and is spanned by wooden beams, each carved from a single tree.  The floors of the church are paved with granite blocks originally used as ballast for merchant ships.  The church bell is inscribed with the date 1698 suggesting that it was used for another purpose prior to the completion of the church.

The oldest functioning Protestant Church in Malaysia

Originally painted white, the church and the neighbouring Stadhuys building was painted red in 1911 and this distinctive colour scheme has remained the hallmark of Malacca’s Dutch-era buildings since.

A declared World Heritage Site

Another World Heritage site that can be ticked off by bucket list!    

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow

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