Portuguese Settlement Ayutthaya Tricky Vandenberg

 Scholars indicate in the 80’s that the Jesuit Church San Paolo must be situated in coordinates –

 In 2008 excavations held in situ reveal no indications of a Christian church, but Buddhist artifacts instead.

 The conclusion of these excavations is that the San Paolo Church has not been located as yet.  A new trial to situate the former church is needed as thus.  Which ancient maps indicate the Jesuit Church?  de La Loubère's map  de Courtaulin’s map

de La Loubère's Map

 OBJECTIVE 1  Based on de La Loubère's (dLL) map retrace the position of the San Paolo Jesuit Church.  METHOD – 1 st Step  Cropped the southern part of dLL’s map.  Set transparency in order to make an overlay. Transparent overlay of the southern area

MATCHING NORTHERN BANK OF CHAO PHRAYA RIVER X

MATCHING WESTERN BANK OF CHAO PHRAYA RIVER X

MATCHING THE FRENCH & THE PORTUGUESE CHURCHES X

 ENCOUNTERED PROBLEMS  Overlay of the southern part does not match; neither the northern or western river banks; nor the Points of Interest such as the French and the Portuguese churches.  dLL’s map is not in proportion vis-à-vis the present aerial view of the terrain.  It is a largely out of axis and deformed map.

 METHOD – 2 nd Step  Next step - made a smaller overlay, only covering in part the Portuguese settlement. Smaller transparent overlay of the Portuguese area

Based on the location of the San Petro Church as reference point

 ENCOUNTERED PROBLEMS  Overlay of the Portuguese area gives more or less a position, but this small overlay is also not proportional.  METHOD – 3th Step  Measurement via the scale indicated on dLL’s map.  Scale is in “Toises” and old French measurement used before  1 T = 6 feet = 1.95 m approx  dLL’s map has a (approx) scale of 1/

 Calculation  Scale 1/  1mm = 30 cm  Distance between the outer moats = approx 700 m.  Distance between the central point in both plots = approx 850 m.  ENCOUNTERED PROBLEMS  Central point San Paolo is about 50 m below the moat coming from Khlong Thet.  But: Not original dLL map / dLL map is approx drawing, not a drawing by engineer.

850 m Church to Church Position of San Paolo Khlong Thet Position of the San Paolo Church in relation to the San Petro Church following de La Loubère's map scale.

850 m Church to Church Adjusted position of San Paolo Khlong Thet Adjusted position of the San Paolo Church in relation to Khlong Thet. Grounds 150 x 65 m

 OBJECTIVE 2  Comparison with aerial map of 1944 of the Williams Hunt Collection (WHC).  RESULT  Wat Pho Chai clearly visible.  East of Wat Pho Chai there is a square visible formed by the east moat of Wat Pho Chai Rang and two moats running from Khlong Thet towards the Chao Phraya River. These two moats are likely the extensions of the northern and southern moat of Wat Pho Chai Rang.

Williams-Hunt Aerial Photos Collection Original from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London Digital Data from Center for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University Digital Archive from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy (CRMA), Thailand

Wat Jaeng Wat Po Chai Ancient Moat? Khlong Thet Ancient Moat? Williams-Hunt Aerial Photos Collection Original from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London Digital Data from Center for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University Digital Archive from Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy (CRMA), Thailand Position of San Paolo

 Conclusions  As the WHC map shows a square formed by moats nearly identical as on dLL’s map, there is a possibility of a match.  With the restricted number of evidences of the area, author exhausted all his means. Only physical control in the terrain remains, to check of the above possible match can be confirmed.  Next slide shows the areas where possibly traces from the church could be found.

Overall possible location of the church based on WHC Estimated location of the church Possible San Paolo Grounds Based on dLL

 Disclaimer  Author has insufficient scientifically evidence to delineate the exact position of the San Paolo Church.  The above presentation is only a trial to locate the Jesuit church, and does not guarantee in any way that any remains of the church would be found during any excavation.