Old People’s Home

It was founded in August 1900 through the efforts of the late diocesan prelate Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto and Father António José de Macedo. It was first housed in a building on the Calçada do Socorro (‘Succour causeway’), but as this could hold no more than forty old people, the home moved to a large house in Rua das Hortas (‘street of the kitchen gardens’), where it remains today.

At first the Old People’s Home (Asilo dos Velhinhos) sheltered twenty-five poor people, but by 1910 it had seventy-five residents, twenty-five men and fifty women. The work of the house was done by six nuns, two Portuguese and four foreign, who were helped by some of the more vigorous residents.

When the expulsion of the Little Sisters of the Poor (Irmãzinhas dos Pobres) was ordered after the proclamation of the Republic, the District General Council (Junta Geral) resolved to take over the running costs of the home, whose services are now in the hands of staff paid by that body.

All the furniture found in the home in 1910 was sold at public auction. Part of it was bought by the General Council, which put it to the same use as before.