Barra sits at the peninsula's southwestern tip, where the A-Ma Temple has stood for more than 500 years — predating Portuguese arrival and giving Macau its very name. Incense coils hang from the temple's terraced halls, which climb a rocky hillside above the old inner harbour. Below, Barra Square and the colonial-era Moorish Barracks (now the Maritime Affairs Bureau) recall the district's seafaring past, and the Macau Maritime Museum sits across the square. Narrow lanes wind uphill toward Penha Hill, whose chapel and colonial mansions offer sweeping views back over the harbour toward mainland China, making Barra one of the quietest, most atmospheric corners of the historic peninsula.