Municipality of Macau

The Municipality of Macau () was one of the two municipalities of Macau, along with the Municipality of Ilhas. Its bodies were the municipal council ("Câmara Municipal de Macau") and the municipal assembly ("Assembleia Municipal de Macau") ("Câmara Municipal de Macau Provisória" and "Assembleia Municipal de Macau Provisória" after December 20, 1999). Per Law No. 17/2001, the two municipalities were abolished on December 31, 2001 and replaced by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (Instituto para os Assuntos Cívicos e Municipais) the following day.
Early history.
In 1513, a Portuguese explorer, Jorge Álvares, arrived in the Pearl River Delta, in the Shenzhen area, which he called Tamão. A Portuguese settlement was started here and by 1535 the traders were allowed to anchor their ships in the Macau harbour. In 1887, the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of Peking was signed, allowing "the perpetual occupation and government of Macau by Portugal". 
According to National Geographic, "Macau may never have existed if not for Tamão" where the Portuguese learned "how China, the Pearl River Delta, and the South China Sea worked". The settlement and Jorge Álvares "kickstarted a chain of events that ultimately spawned Macau". A large stone sculpture of Álvares still stands in downtown Macau. 