Exploring Dili on foot – central Dili

In the last couple of months before I left Timor-Leste in February 2025, I set myself the challenge of walking around every neighbourhood in the capital Dili. This was a wonderful way to explore the city, and get some exercise during the wet season. This post covers walks around central Dili from my home in Vila Verde.

Heading north to the waterfront the contrast between the flash Ministry of Finance building and houses by the storm water channels was stark.

Arte Moris, the first fine arts school, cultural center and artists’ association in Timor-Leste, was established in 2003. It gained an international reputation for its varied, and often surreal, art incorporating Timorese culture and motifs. In December 2021 it was controversially evicted from its home in the former National Museum in Comoro, which had been promised by the then government to veterans. Thankfully it found a new home in the former air traffic control tower of the original Dili airport, located to the south of Nicolau Lobato Presidential Palace. I came across it by accident on a morning walk, the location really isn’t obvious!

Variety wandering around the Hudi Laran (banana place) area with church and street art, religious statues, and interesting streets.

Wandering around close to Vila Verde on a sunny morning.

Heading south from Vila Verde I found the extensive and fascinating Seminario Ano Propedeutico S. Joao Maria Vianey – Maloa.

I returned the following day to explore the lovely Gruta Nossa Senhora da Grasa Ailok-Laran, shrine to the Virgin Mary.

Returning to more central Dili, and the Dili Municipal Stadium, which has clearly seen better days…

Nearby is a Statue of Francisco Xavier do Amaral, the first President of Timor-Leste, who died in 2012. It was inaugurated in 2017. Locals refer to it as the pointy man statue, as the President is shown in the same pose as an iconic picture taken at the Proclamation of Independence on the 28th of November 1975. By the roundabout is Dili Convention Centre. Opened in the 1960s, this was the main market in Dili until the early 1990s when two more markets were established in Becora (east Dili) and Comoro (west Dili) to cope with the increased city population. In 2010 it was turned into the convention centre.

Dili street art varies from the festive to informative!

Colégio Paulo VI has an interesting statue out front.

This post was holding up a lot of power lines!

The streets of Dili are varied, and definitely more attractive in the early morning light.

Another varied walk from my house in Vila Verde around the streets of central Dili.

A relatively short loop walk from the Palm Centre included the attractive Kapela Surikmas.

At the western end of the Fatumeta maternity hospital lies Antiga Fábrica de Cerâmica, the remains of a Portuguese colonial era ceramics works, where bricks and tiles were made. When independence hero Xanana Gusmão visited Dili he would hide at the factory.