João Maria Ferreira do Amaral Statue, Lisbon

Not a film location per se but I was just in Lisbon, Portugal and took the chance to visit a remnant from Macau that has popped up in a few films over the years. The remnant is the statue of João Maria Ferreira do Amaral, the Macau Governor between 1846 and 1849. His tenure ended by his assassination by a group of Chinese following do Amaral's rather confrontational stance against the Chinese in and around Macau. You can read more about him over at wiki, but suffice to say his historical legacy is one of the reasons why this statue is now in Lisbon and not in Macau. The statue was initially installed on Praça de Ferreira do Amaral in June 1940. It depicts the one armed do Amaral swinging a sword (looks more like a stick to be honest) down at unseen aggressors. 

The statue used to sit atop a large stone column in the centre of Praça de Ferreira do Amaral and it was in this location where we can see it in several movies featured on the blog including Narazumono.

There's a brief glimpse in Asia-Pol Secret Service as well.

And there is another brief scene in Challenge of the Tiger.

So what happened? Well, do Amaral was such a hated figure to the Chinese (understadable) that the CCP demanded the statue's removal from Macau prior to the handover in 1999. The Portuguese authorities acquiesced in November 1991 and the monument was dismantled. The statue was shipped back to Lisbon (does anyone know what happened to the plinth?) and now sits in a park - Jardim da Alameda da Encarnação - attached to a suburban housing estate right next to Lisbon airport (you can walk there, as I did, from Terminal 1 in about 10 minutes - what can I say, I was flying Easyjet and my return flight was delayed for 2 hours).

The statue may have gone but the area in Macau where it once stood - Praça de Ferreira do Amaral - still bares his name.