Calheta (parish)

It is very likely that the name of this parish (freguesia) derives from the small bay or cove that serves as its landing place, for that is the true meaning of the word calheta. The Encyclopedia Portuguesa of Maximiliano de Lemos, referring to this parish, says that it has an unsheltered beach or cove (calheta) which gives it its name. Gaspar Frutuoso, describing the first exploration of the coast made by Zarco, states that ‘having run along the coast a good two léguas without finding anywhere to land, they came upon a large inlet where, eager to know the land, they went ashore among some rocks, building a landing place there by hand, to which the captain gave the name Calheta’. In an old manuscript we found the following information, which we consider interesting: ‘running along the coast without finding anywhere to land, they came upon a large inlet and there went ashore, making a landing place by hand among some rocks, and to this channel they had made the captain gave the name of Calheta’. The word has fallen out of use, but it was frequently employed in the time of our maritime discoveries. In the archipelagos of the Azores and Cape Verde there are various landing places and coves called calheta, and the name also extended to the settlements adjoining them. This, then, must be the true origin of the name of this parish.

It is one of the oldest parishes on the island and one of the first to be worked by the earliest colonists. Here the discoverer took a great lombada (long ridge between valleys) for his son João Gonçalves da Câmara, and extensive lands on the right bank of the stream for his daughter Dona Beatriz Gonçalves, who married Diogo Cabral. Cabral was granted further lands by his father-in-law as a sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation), and on them he had the chapel of Our Lady of the Star (Nossa Senhora da Estrela) built, where he founded an entailed estate (morgadio) and where he was buried (see Cabral and Nossa Senhora da Estrela).

Among the earliest settlers of this parish were Dr Pedro Berenguer de Lemilhana (see Berenguer), who gave his name to the locality (sítio) still called Lombo do Doutor today; Luís de Atouguia, who held sesmaria lands on the lombo (ridge between valleys) that came to be called Atouguia’s; João Rodrigues Mondragão (see Mondragão), a native of Biscay; and Francisco Homem de Gouveia, founder of the entailed estate of Reis Magos (see that entry) in Estreito da Calheta (‘the narrows of Calheta’). There were also others who founded chantries (capela) there with entails (instituições vinculares) attached. Other early settlers of this parish were the Neapolitan knight Afonso de Aragão, to whom we have already referred in the article Aragão, and João Assuna Teixeira and João Salviato, who held a great deal of sesmaria land there. Gaspar Frutuoso also mentions João Rodrigues Castelhano, of whom he says: ‘... who was so called because he spoke Castilian, though he was Genoese by birth; his is a rich estate of sugar cane, with its own chaplain. This João Rodrigues married off two very rich daughters in Funchal, and the finest estates on the island now belong to them: he had many slaves, five of whom killed a factor (feitor) of his; he handed them over to the law, and they were hanged in the town of Calheta.

The parish (freguesia) was created in 1430. It was first seated at the Capela da Estrela, where it seems not to have remained for many years. Its patron saint then became the Espírito Santo (Holy Spirit), in the church of that name. We have found no reference to the year in which that church was first built, and know only that it was rebuilt in 1639.

From the creation of the parish, the parish priest received an annual stipend (côngrua) of 8,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis). Successive royal decrees (alvará régio) gradually increased it; the last of which we have knowledge, dated 20 April 1626, fixed this salary at 18,000 réis in cash, four moios of wheat and one pipa (wine cask and measure, c. 400–500 litres) of wine. The curacy (curato) was created by royal decree of 27 August 1589, with a stipend of 20,000 réis a year.

The parish once had a collegiate church with 4 beneficed clergy, a treasurer and a preacher, besides the parish priest and the curate. If we are to believe what we read not long ago in a newspaper, this collegiate chapter spent some years in constant wandering, moving at short intervals from church to church and from chapel to chapel. From 1811 to 1815 it was seated in the church of the Franciscan convent, from 1815 to 1821 in the chapel of Santo António (St Anthony of Padua), for some months of that last year in the chapel of the Misericórdia (Holy House of Mercy, a lay charitable brotherhood), and from 1821 to 1834 in the mother church (igreja matriz).

Two features deserve special mention: the ceiling of the chancel of the parish church, built like that of our Cathedral (Sé Catedral), and above all the tabernacle, a work of rare artistic value made of ebony with exquisite silver inlays, which was a gift of King Manuel I. It is a pity that this precious piece of 16th-century religious art has been somewhat neglected in its state of preservation. Its antiquity, its historical value and the remarkable artistic refinements it contains demanded the most careful and attentive effort to prevent and avert, as far as possible, the corrosive and destructive action of time.

It was one of the parishes of Madeira with the greatest number of chapels, among which we can list the following: São José, Santa Quitéria, Jesus-Maria-José, São Pedro de Alcântara, Our Lady of Pity, São João Baptista, Our Lady of the Good Death, São Francisco Xavier, Our Lady of the Peña de Francia, Our Lady of the Star, Nossa Senhora da Vida, Nossa Senhora de Monserrate, Almas, Our Lady of Good Success, Our Lady of Nazaré and St Catherine. Few of them still exist, and almost all were entailed foundations (instituição vincular, a morgado or capela). We shall deal with them in the articles devoted to chapels.

The parish had the convent of São Francisco, of the Seraphic Order, which we shall deal with in a separate article.

There was a Misericórdia here, with its house and chapel, which we shall discuss in the article devoted to the Misericórdias of this archipelago.

Among the most distinguished sons of this parish were the priests Dr António Veloso de Lira and Dr António João de França Bettencourt, whom we discuss at greater length in their respective places.

On 10 July 1834, little more than a month after constitutional government was established in Madeira, serious disturbances broke out in this parish. Their hidden cause was a protest against the new public order, although outwardly this did not appear to be so. On the pretext that the people were about to be oppressed with heavy taxes, a large number of individuals rioted, causing disorder and committing acts of violence, as a result of which three men were killed and others suffered more or less serious injuries. The uprising threatened to spread, and the authorities set about crushing it firmly, sending to this parish a detachment of infantry and a naval force from the frigate D. Pedro, which was then lying at anchor in our harbour. The people were not intimidated by the presence of the armed force and even offered it some resistance, so that the troops were compelled to act with extreme severity, and a number of men of the people fell, shot through by bullets – how many, we cannot say precisely. An extensive judicial inquiry (devassa) followed and numerous arrests were made. The trial took place in January 1836: seven defendants were sentenced to perpetual penal exile (degredo) in Angola, some to temporary penal exile, and Father João

Rodrigues Pestana to perpetual penal exile in Mozambique, where he died.

The mining engineer Eugène Arckermann, in his book L’Ile de Madère considerée au point de vue scientifique, p. 60 ff., discusses at some length the traces of petroleum found in the locality (sítio) of Vila in this parish, approximately 300 metres from the coastal steamer agency. Some exploratory work was carried out on the site, but it produced no appreciable result.

The main localities of this parish are Lombo da Estrela, Lombo do Salão, Lombo do Brasil, Lombo do Doutor, Lombo do Atouguia and Vila.

It has two state schools, one for each sex.

This parish lies approximately 38 kilometres from the city by the coast road, and by the same road it is about 11 kilometres from Ponta do Sol (‘point of the sun’), seat of the judicial district (comarca). It has 4,665 inhabitants.