Quay opposite the Entrance to the City

On 23 April 1843 the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) resolved to build a stone quay in front of the Entrada da Cidade (‘entrance to the city’), voting the sum of 1,200,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) for the purpose. After this expenditure had been authorised by the District Council (Conselho de Districto) on 6 May following, Major of Engineers Manuel José Júlio Guerra was put in charge of the construction. On the 24th of the same month he declared that he needed a further 1,000,000 réis to protect the works from the winter, a sum which the Council likewise voted.

By February 1844, 4,120,000 réis had already been spent on the quay, in addition to a large quantity of stone and worked dressed stone (cantaria) supplied by the Government. Major Guerra’s latest estimate asked the Council for a further 18 contos de réis (conto: one million réis), which it could not afford to spend.

At a council meeting on 6 March 1844 a proposal was discussed to appoint a committee to direct the works on the quay. It was to consist of Major Manuel José Júlio Guerra as chairman, Dr Manuel Joaquim Moniz, Captain António Pedro de Azevedo, Captain Vicente de Paula Teixeira and Lieutenant Tibério Augusto Blanc. The proposal was rejected, however, and the works continued under the direction of Major Guerra, whose incompetence the Council recognised only when it was already impossible to remedy all the mistakes he had made.

The total sum spent on the quay at the Entrada da Cidade rose to 20,390,000 réis. The Council finally resolved to abandon the works, having recognised that they were already threatening ruin long before they were finished.

In 1889, when work began on the present quay, some remains of the quay begun in 1843 still existed, though already much reduced. We ourselves knew one of the flights of steps of this quay, which the sea had not yet entirely destroyed in 1870.

Thirty or forty years ago the ruins of the old quay were the meeting place of many Funchal families on summer afternoons and evenings, even though there were no seats there other than a few stones still coated with cement, and the ground was very uneven because of the damage done by the sea.

By a ministerial order (portaria) of 17 September 1879, the Government ordered a study for a new quay in Funchal. The task was entrusted to the artillery officer Henrique de Lima e Cunha, who drew up a project that was approved, with modifications, by the Higher Council of Public Works and Mines (Conselho Superior de Obras Públicas e Minas) on 17 June 1881. Under this project, the quay was to be built at the Entrada da Cidade, on the same alignment as the old one.

The process for the Funchal quay made no progress, and only in 1886, when the construction of the Molhe da Pontinha (‘little point breakwater’) had already been approved, was the carrying out of the work taken up. For this purpose, the project drawn up by Captain Lima e Cunha was used, with some modifications introduced by the engineer José Bernardo Lopes de Andrade. This project was submitted on 27 April 1887 and, after being suitably modified by the Higher Council of Public Works and Mines on 27 July of the same year, was approved by a ministerial order of 5 December.

The work was put out to public tender and, on 18 January 1889, awarded to the French engineers Combemale, Michelon and Maurie for the sum of 87,000,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis). When the accounts were settled, however, these contractors were recognised as entitled to receive the sum of 92,005,485 réis, on account of additional work carried out.

The work was completed on 27 April 1892 and provisionally accepted on that date, but final acceptance took place only on 27 April 1895. On the opinion of the Consultative Board of Public Works (Junta Consultiva de Obras Públicas) of 30 May of the same year, the contractors were judged to have discharged all the obligations they had contracted towards the State, as recorded in the ministerial order of 10 July 1895.

The extension of the Entrada da Cidade quay had become an urgent necessity. The Autonomous Board of Harbour Works (Junta Autónoma das Obras do Porto) opened a tender for this important improvement, which closed on 30 October 1930, and the construction was awarded to the firm Nederlandsche Maatschappij Voor Havenwerken for the sum of 4,763,000 escudos (Portuguese currency from 1911, = 1,000 réis). The extension of the quay was to be 80 metres long and 16.4 m wide, and would be formed of five large blocks with a total volume of 3,337 cubic metres. The first block was set in place on 25 June 1932 and the fifth and last in January 1933. On 28 May 1933 the official inauguration of this improvement took place in the presence of the authorities.

The quay is 82 m long and 16.80 m wide, and ends in a circular platform 20.66 m in diameter.