Campo do Duque 1The duke's field and its extent
Campo do Duque
The Campo do Duque was a large open ground at the centre of early Funchal, belonging to the grand master of the Order of Christ, on which the Sé, the town hall and the chapel of São Sebastião were later built. It was also where sugar cane was first planted and the island's first two-storey house was built.
1The duke's field and its extent
The Order of Christ (Ordem de Cristo) (see
that entry). After Prince Henry the Navigator and his immediate successor, the Infante Ferdinand, its Grand Masters were Dom João, Duke of Viseu, Diogo, Duke of Viseu, and Manuel, Duke of Beja, who succeeded to the crown. Since Madeira belonged to the mastership of that Order, these dukes held wide jurisdiction over the spiritual, and also the temporal, affairs of this archipelago. At the centre of its most important settlement lay a vast square or open ground, which belonged to the Grand Master of the Order and was called the Campo do Duque (the Duke’s Field) in his honour. Referring to this ground, Dr Álvaro de Azevedo says:
The Campo do Duque was the land on which, in the city of Funchal, stand the public gaol and its square; the Sé, its churchyard and open square; and the Largo de São Sebastião, in which the chapel of that saint was built... Various documents refer to this ground, notably the letters of the Infante Ferdinand by which, in 1470, he ordered the municipal fold of the municipality (concelho) to be made, and granted the land “next to the great church”, that is, the Sé, for the town hall to be built...
Some have claimed that the Campo do Duque extended between the two banks of the streams that today bear the names of Santa Luzia and São João. It seems that it at least reached the vicinity of the grounds of the future Convent of São Francisco (St Francis of Assisi).
2Sugar cane, the first house and the cathedral
In the manuscript Noticias das cousas da ilha da Madeira desde o segundo descobrimento pelo Zarco we find the following:
To test whether the said canes would thrive, they first planted them in the field that was called the Duke’s, where the Church of São Sebastião now stands, which is in the middle of the city; this field was closed with a gate where the Rua do Sabão now runs. The whole of this field belonged to Francisco de Carvalhal, companion of Zargo in the discovery of this island; afterwards it belonged to his brother João Manuel, and it still belongs to his heirs. From here the cultivation of cane spread throughout the island, and they took it to Machico, where the first sugar refined on the island was made. In this Campo do Duque the first two-storey house in this town (vila) of Funchal, and in the whole island, was built, and the said João Manuel had it made of worked cedar wood. This two-storey house was held at that time to be so novel and marvellous a thing – all the other houses then standing being single-storey and built of planks – that articles of complaint were laid before the King against the said João Manuel, accusing him of building a tower, as though he meant to fortify himself and rise up against Funchal and against the Crown. The said house still stands today (mid-18th century) and is owned by António de Carvalhal, and it is the lowest two-storey house in Funchal’.
In the letter of 5 November 1485 that Manuel I, then Duke of Beja and Grand Master of the Order of Christ, addressed to the Senate (senado, the municipal council) of Funchal, he granted the land needed in the Campo do Duque for the building of the Cathedral (the Sé) and of the town hall.
The old Campo do Duque was the most central part of the early settlement, then town and later city of Funchal, as it may be said still to be, in the streets and squares that roughly correspond to it.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02-
Infante D. Fernando asked the donatary João Gonçalves da Câmara to build a council house and municipal pound in Funchal, granting land by the church.
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D. Manuel, Duke of Beja, ceded land in the Campo do Duque, Funchal, for the church (later cathedral) and town hall; sources give 5 June or 5 November 1485.
Place
Places mentioned · 09- Campo do Duque · Subject
Funchal
The Campo do Duque was a large open ground at the centre of early Funchal belonging to the grand masters of the Order of Christ. It was granted for the building of the Sé (from 1485), the town hall and the square with its pillory, and the Terreiro da Sé was part of it. It is recorded as the site where sugar cane was first planted and where the first two-storey cedar house in Funchal was built.
- Convent of St Francis
Funchal. The field reached near its enclosure.
The Convento de São Francisco was a Franciscan convent in Funchal founded in 1473, which marked the western limit of the city in 1508. Its church was demolished in 1865, and its fittings, books, tombstones and bones went to the Angústias cemetery, the museum and the Municipal Library. Its buildings briefly lodged prisoners until 1836 and housed the police in 1857.
- Funchal
The town in whose centre the Campo do Duque lay.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Funchal Cathedral (the Sé)
Funchal. Cathedral built on land of the Campo do Duque.
The Sé do Funchal is the cathedral of Funchal, in the parish of Sé. It was begun in 1493, became a parish seat in 1508 and a cathedral in 1514. It was the starting point of processions and the place of the vow to São Tiago, and bishops are buried there.
- Largo de São Sebastião
Funchal. Square, with its chapel, forming part of the former field.
Square in Funchal, formerly part of the Campo do Duque, and the site of one of the island's first chapels. It housed premises of the Clube União and is the present location of the basins of the old Jardim Pequeno fountain.
- Machico
Where the first sugar on the island was made.
The parish of Machico was the landing place of the discoverers Zargo and Tristão Vaz and the seat of the captaincy of Machico; the parish was founded c. 1450. The Elucidário covers its clergy and stipends, chapels, historical events, mineral springs, localities, population and notable natives.
- Ribeira de Santa Luzia
Funchal. Said to bound the field on one side.
The Ribeira de Santa Luzia is one of the three streams crossing Funchal, named after a chapel of Santa Luzia on its left bank. Its banks were probably the first land irrigated by levadas and had four sugar mills in the late 17th century. It feeds the Santa Luzia, Moinhos and D. Isabel levadas, and the Jesuits' Fundoa residence stood on its right bank.
- Ribeira de São João
Calheta. Said to bound the field on the other side.
The Ribeira de São João is the westernmost of the three large streams crossing Funchal; it rises in Santo António, reaches the sea at São Lázaro and formerly bore several other names. It marked the western limit of old Funchal and of the planned walls, the first settlement stood on its right bank, and its sediment is silting up the Pontinha cove. A stream of the same name is also recorded as crossing the parish of Fajã da Ovelha.
- Rua do Sabão
Funchal. Site of the gate that closed the field.
One of Funchal's oldest streets, existing in 1508, onto which the Gothic front of the house associated with Columbus faced. A gate at its south end, the gate that closed the Campo do Duque, was demolished in 1836. The street was renamed in 1922 to commemorate the Lisbon–Rio de Janeiro flight of Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral.
People
People mentioned · 10- Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo1825–1898
Historian quoted on the extent of the Campo do Duque.
- António do Carvalhald. 1598
Owner of the first two-storey house in the mid-eighteenth century.
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Duke of Viseu and grand master of the Order of Christ with jurisdiction over Madeira.
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Duke of Viseu and grand master of the Order of Christ with jurisdiction over Madeira.
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Companion of Zarco in the discovery, said to have owned the whole field.
- Henry the Navigator1394–1460
Prince Henry the Navigator, grand master of the Order of Christ, to which Madeira belonged.
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Successor of Prince Henry as grand master; in 1470 granted land near the church for the town hall.
- João Gonçalves Zarcod. 1467
Discoverer of Madeira, mentioned as companion of Francisco de Carvalhal.
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Brother of Francisco de Carvalhal who built the island's first two-storey house here and was denounced to the king for it.
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Duke of Beja and later king, who in 1485 ceded land in the Campo do Duque for the cathedral and town hall.