The Portuguese occupation of Melaka for 130 years led to mixed marriages between the Portuguese and the local population that give birth to the Melaka Portuguese community that is assimilated with the culture of the local community. This community continues to flourish in the land of Melaka while practicing local culture and holding on to the religion they profess, which is Christianity of the Catholic faith.

During the Dutch occupation of Melaka, the Portuguese were in a depressed condition due to power struggles and sectarian differences wherein the Dutch are Protestant while the Portuguese are Catholic. Due to this pressure, the Portuguese people left the city area and started settling in other new settlements in Alor Gajah and Melaka Pindah.

Good relations between the Portuguese and the British eventually restored the Portuguese community to the urban areas which were largely around the Bandar Hilir, Tengkera, Bunga Raya, Kampung Tengah and Kubu areas. Finally, in 1933 a dedicated settlement for the Portuguese community was established in Ujong Pasir, Melaka.

Two religious personages played an important role in the establishment of the Portuguese settlement, who were the Rev. J. Pier Francois, a priest from the Church of St. Francis and the Rev. AM Coroado, a priest from the Church of St. Peter. Their effort began being carried out since the beginning of 1926. The appeal for the establishment of this settlement was submitted to Mr. Reginald Crichton who was the British Resident Counsellor in Melaka and Mr. E.Y.G. Day, the State Land Revenue Collector of Melaka, who finally agreed to establish a special village for the Portuguese community.

A plot of land of approximately 28 acres in Ujong Pasir was gifted by the British administration to be used as a Portuguese village. At that time, the price valued for this property was about $30,000.00. The area around this village land was originally a swampy forest filled with nipah palm trees.

In 1930, the government through the Public Works Department (Jabatan Kerja Raya) started land reclamation works that took about 3 years. After that, around 1933, this area began to be occupied by the Portuguese community. The village was the also known as ‘Padre Sa Chao’ in the local Portuguese parlance which brings the meaning of ‘the priest land’. In the beginning Rev. J. Pier Francois had chosen to name this village as Kampung St. John (St. John Village) which was used until around the 1940s but later became more popularly known as the Portuguese Village.

The traditional houses in the Portuguese Villages were originally made of wood. The front of the house usually has a small veranda. Tree barks that were painted with white chalk were used as the walls on the outside of the house. The roof was also made from woven nipah palm fronds. To ensure that the settlement area of the Portuguese community in the state of Melaka is protected, in 2002 the Melaka State Government gazetted the settlement in the Portuguese Village under the Cultural Heritage Conservation and Restoration Enactment 1988 [Enactment No. 6 Year 1988] with gazette number Vol. 46 / No. 14 / 4 July 2002.