This is almost all that remains of the greatest church in Macau- St. Paul's. It was built in 1602 and included the Jesuit College of St. Paul's, the first Western college in the Far East where missionaries first stopped to learn Chinese before going onto the Ming Court to serve as royal astronomers and mathematicians. The facade of carved stone was built in the 1620s by Japanese Christian exiles and local craftsmen. The facade is actually an alter piece, a meditating tool for the faithful on the truths of Christianity before entering the church. Reading from the bottom to the top are references to the Society of Jesus, portrayals of the four Jesuit saints, the Assumption of the Virgin Immacualte, and, on the top pier, a dedication to Jesus and the Holy Trinity, surrounded by the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. The ruins of the church lay behind the facade: a fire in 1835 started in the kitchen and destroyed the college and the body of the church.