The Luís de Camões Park is situated on a hill previously known as the "Phoenix Hill", The Delonix regia trees on this hill were originally imported from Malacca and introduced in Macao by a Portuguese merchant. Before the 18th century, the park was called “Nest of the White Doves Park”.
The Luís de Camões Park has a long history as it was initially created during the mid-18th century and was a park as part of the mansion owned by the wealthy Portuguese merchant, D. Manuel Boaventura Lourenço Pereira. Later, it was leased to the East India Company and became their headquarter offices and a nursery field of young plants. In the beginning of the 18th century, the son-in-law of the merchant, Lourenço Caetano Marques, inherited the mansion. Lourenço Marques liked white doves and pigeons as he bred them in his park. Beautiful scenes appeared as this park was always occupied by hundreds of these birds. In tribute to remember the great Portuguese poet Luís de Camões, who had lived and wrote part of the masterpiece Os Lusíadas in Macao, Lourenço Marques financed an installation of a bust of the poet in a stone cave in this garden in 1849. In 1885, the property was sold to the Macao Government and the park was converted into a public space.
The Protestant Cemetery and the “Morrison Chapel” were built in 1821. The chapel was named after Robert Morrison (1782-1834), the first Protestant missionary in China and author of the first Chinese to English dictionary, as well as the first translation of the Bible into Chinese. Employed at the British East India Company when his wife died, Morrison requested the company to acquire the land from the government to enable its use as a burial ground. George Chinnery (1774-1852), a well known British artist, who resided in Macao for over 20 years, is also buried here, alongside various other prominent figures of the time, including Robert Morrison, Anders Ljungstedt (1759-1835), Sweden’s first consul general in China and some officials from the British East India Company, reflecting the diverse social profile of Macao’s community. The cemetery also presents significant historic value prior to the establishment of Hong Kong, in 1842, with the British community first residing in Macao.