Cortina da Cidade (city walls)

This was the name given to the walls that protected Funchal against any enemy attack, from both the landward and the seaward side. On the east, the walls ran from the pillory (pelourinho, stone column symbolising municipal jurisdiction) to the Pena (‘crag’), following the right bank of the Ribeira de João Gomes (‘João Gomes’s stream’); on the west, from the mouth of the Ribeira de São João (formerly the Ribeira Grande) to the cliff of Pico dos Frias (‘the Frias’ peak’), following the left bank of the same stream; and on the south, from the mouth of the Ribeira de São João to the Fort of São Tiago (St James the Greater).

The curtain wall (cortina, the defensive wall of the city) of the city was begun, it seems, in the reign of King Sebastian. However, the regulations (regimento) for the fortifications that this monarch gave to Madeira make no mention of the walls east of the Ribeira de João Gomes. These walls were built during the period of Castilian rule: by a royal decree (alvará) issued in 1618, Philip III assigned substantial funds to the work, which was not completed until 1637.

According to an inscription on the parade ground and arms of the Fort of São João do Pico (Castelo de São João do Pico), which Dr Azevedo transcribed on p. 625 of his notes to the ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra), almost all of the curtain wall joining that fort was built by the governor Luís de Miranda Henriques, who was on this island from 1636 to 1640. This part of the wall had, however, already been designated in King Sebastian’s regulations as necessary for the landward defence of the city.

João da Costa e Brito, governor-general of the archipelago from 1680 to 1684, seems to have improved the city walls. Yet an inscription that stood on the now demolished Varadouros (‘slipways’) gate, which Dr Azevedo also transcribed on p. 628 of the same work, shows that the walls were not completed until 1689, in the time of the governor Dom Lourenço de Almeida.

There is a letter from Duke Manuel I, dated 21 June 1493, ordering an enclosure and walls to be built in the town (vila) of Funchal. On 9 January 1494, however, a royal letter (carta régia) appeared revoking that order and directing that only a few bastions be built and some gateways blocked up for the proper defence and protection of the island. After this, Vicente Sodré came to Madeira on the orders of the same duke to deal with the said enclosure and walls. But, as Dr Azevedo says, this mission achieved nothing, for the island only acquired fortifications once royal power had been consolidated there through the Manueline reforms.

The Fort of São Filipe, the redoubt of Santo António da Alfândega, the Fort of São Lourenço (St Lawrence) and the battery of Fontes (‘springs’) lay within the old walled enclosure, although all these fortifications, except that of São Lourenço, were built after the walls. ‘The Alfândega redoubt,’ says Dr Azevedo, ‘was the first excrescence on Funchal’s belt of walls; it was the first blow to the system of circumvallation, and the first deliberate step towards a system of maritime defence based on the range and crossfire of cannon.’

In 1557 the government levied a contribution of 7,000 cruzados on the properties of the captaincy of Funchal for the fortification works; in 1576 another of 100,000 cruzados, likewise for the same works; and in 1617 the government demanded payment of whatever sum might be needed for the walls and other military works that Madeira required. Earlier, in 1493, a war contribution had been imposed on the island for building the enclosure and walls of the town of Funchal. This contribution had no effect, because the work was never carried out, owing to the royal letter of 9 January 1494 to which we referred above.

Of the old city wall only a few remnants still stand, more or less hidden among the houses, and the gates and gateways that once pierced it have also disappeared. The redan at the entrance to the city and the walls near the present São Pedro Market and between the Fortress and the fort of Fontes disappeared in 1839; in 1888 the gun emplacement near the old British cemetery, by the Ribeiro Real, disappeared; on 20 September 1897 demolition began of the branch (lanço, ramal) of the city wall adjoining the Fort of São Pedro (St Peter), north of the old Praça Académica; and finally, in May 1911, the part of the wall beside the chapel of the Varadouros was removed. Following representations made to the Government in August 1895 and February 1896, the Council now owns the branch of the old walls that can be seen near the spot where the Avenida de João de Deus comes out. On 29 May 1914 the same body resolved to acquire the part of the city wall needed to extend the Largo da Sé (‘cathedral square’) down to the beach, since it had been authorised to do so by a note from the War Ministry. Demolition of this part of the city wall began in March 1920 to open the Avenida António José de Almeida. On 15 October 1896 the Council ordered a halt to the demolition of the part of the city wall bordering Rua Pimenta de Aguiar, because of a complaint from the head of the engineering section on this island. That wall still stands today, perfectly useless, although the said official attributed military importance to it, so we believe.

This last gateway, which before 1839 was the main entrance to the city, was distinguished by the elegance of its architecture. When it was demolished, its stones were numbered on the orders of the municipal engineer, Mr Aníbal Augusto Trigo, so that the structure could easily be reassembled should a museum of Madeiran antiquities one day be created.

On the gateway, above which the Council’s arms could be seen, was the following Latin inscription, to which we referred above: Perfecta haec varii praefecti moenia frustra “ praeterito cupiunt tempore quisque suo “ sed Domino Laurento ea est servata voluptas Dalmada qui istud fine coronat opus “ anno “ 1689. (Various governors, each in his own time, vainly longed to see these walls completed; but that pleasure was reserved for Dom Lourenço de Almada, who crowns this work with its completion, in the year 1689.)

Although the city wall had long ceased to have any military importance, the Council obtained the necessary permission from the War Ministry to demolish some branches of it only with difficulty. Without the intervention of high political influence, some improvements that depended on removing the wall might still be waiting to be carried out, such was the importance that, until not many years ago, the Ministry attached to preserving a system of fortifications whose only purpose was to show that the defence and protection of the island were not, in former times, the matter neglected by those in government that they are today.