A domineering presence in the skyline of Malacca, this twin-spired neo-gothic structure was built on the site of an old Portuguese church by a French priest, Father Farvé, in 1856, in honour of St. Francis Xavier, a prominent 16th-century Catholic missionary also known as ‘Apostle of the East’. Located on Jalan Laksamana, the church’s finishing touches were completed in 1859 by Father Allard, with the present-day presbytery built in 1874.

For quite some time, it became the largest church built by the MEP (Paris Foreign Missionary) in the Malay Peninsula. It was believed that the church was modelled after the Cathedral of St. Peter in Montpellier in Southern France, which closely followed the older church’s original construction, except for a portico which was added on in 1963.