Estreito da Calheta (parish)

We have read somewhere that there is no plausible explanation for the use of the word Estreito, applied to the parishes (freguesias) of Estreito da Calheta (‘the narrows of Calheta’) and Estreito de Câmara de Lobos (‘the narrows of Câmara de Lobos’). We share this opinion. Even if we give the word the meaning of gorge, valley or profundidade (deep, roughly circular mountain basin), as some lexicographers would have it, it does not seem to us that the relief of those parishes, taken as a whole, justifies such a name. It is possible that a small locality (sítio) or village (lugar, settlement rank below a town), with more or less aptness in the use of the term, originally bore the name Estreito, which then spread to the surrounding land and was later extended to designate an entire parish, as happened with other parishes of Madeira. Moreover, in the earliest days of colonisation the naming of the various localities must have been highly arbitrary. In many cases it would have followed only the whim and preference of the early settlers, without regard to the relief and watercourses of the places, or to any other weighty circumstances that might perhaps have arisen. An event of no importance, and sometimes even a minor episode, was reason enough for the name given to a particular locality or village, as certainly happened with the parishes of Fajã da Ovelha, Campanário, Curral das Freiras, etc.

As we have already noted, Calheta (‘small cove’) was one of the oldest places outside Funchal to be subject to early colonisation and farming. We must suppose that the settlement and clearing of the land that later made up the parish of Estreito did not take long. There were one or more “settled farmsteads” (fazendas povoadas) there, which formed the original nucleus of the settlement established in this village.

The annotator of the Saudades, following the old Madeiran genealogies, says that this parish originated in the settled estate (fazenda povoada) begun there by André Gonçalves de França, known as the Pole because he was a native of the kingdom of Poland. He came from there to this island around the middle of the 15th century and obtained a great deal of land by sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation) in what was then the parish of Calheta, land that later belonged to the future parish of Estreito. It was his son João de França who further enlarged the already vast property and, in the words of Dr Álvaro de Azevedo, ‘enhanced it with fine houses and a chapel’. He had the chapel of Our Lady of Grace (Nossa Senhora da Graça) built, in which the new parish was later created and installed. It was also the seat of the entailed estate (morgadio) he founded in 1503, one of the oldest entails (instituições vinculares) in Madeira. João de França died around 1511 and was buried in the chapel he had founded.

Gaspar Frutuoso, giving a brief description of the parishes (freguesias) of this island as they were at the time he wrote the Saudades and even earlier, says of Estreito da Calheta: ‘And then, about a league from Calheta, lies the estate of João Rodrigues Castelhano, who was so called because he spoke Castilian, though he was a Genoese by nation; it is a large estate of sugar cane, with its own chaplain. This João Rodrigues begot in Funchal two very rich daughters, and the best estates on the island now belong to them. He had many slaves, five of whom killed a factor of his; he handed them over to Justice, and they were hanged in the Vila da Calheta (‘town of Calheta’). About half a league from the estate of this João Rodrigues Castelhano stands another sugar mill, belonging to Diogo de França, who had twelve noble and rich children, and a good estate of cane and vines, waters and fruit.’ Perhaps earlier than this João Rodrigues Castelhano is Francisco Homem de Gouveia, a fidalgo (nobleman of the lesser nobility) who settled in Calheta at the beginning of the 16th century. With his wife, Dona Isabel Afonso, he founded the chapel and entail (morgado) of the Magi (Reis Magos) in this parish of Estreito. One of the editors of this Elucidário published a detailed article on them in the Brado d'Oeste (‘Cry from the West’) of 2 September 1916, from which we extract the following passages:

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Francisco Homem de Gouveia acquired in the parish of Estreito da Calheta the lombada (long ridge between valleys) that bore his name and that, after the chapel was built, came to be called Lombo dos Reis (‘kings’ ridge’), a name it still keeps today. It was by a deed of 4 August 1529 that he and his wife established the entailed estate (morgadio) of the Reis on the thirds of their property, with perpetual succession to his firstborn son. We do not know whether the chapel is a building contemporary with the entailed foundation (instituição vincular, a morgado or capela), but we believe it was not built much later than that time. This entailed estate carried the obligation of a daily Mass in the same chapel, where its founders lie buried, the wife of Francisco Homem having died on 5 March 1554.’ This entail was incorporated into the house of the donataries of Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’) because a granddaughter and heiress of the founder, Dona Maria da Câmara, was married to Diogo Perestrelo de Bisforte, 5th captain-donatary (capitão-donatário) and governor of that island.

Around the middle of the 18th century António João de França Andrade and João António Cardoso Belzago had residences in this parish, and, we believe, entailed lands (terras vinculadas) as well. In 1750 and 1753 they were granted papal briefs to set up oratories in the houses they owned there and to have the sacrifice of the Mass celebrated in them.

The parish was created before 1562, because the royal decree (alvará régio) of 12 January of that year raised the stipend (côngrua) of its parish priest to 17,300 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) a year, where it had previously been only 13,300 réis. Successive royal decrees (alvarás) of 30 March and 22 June 1572, 20 April 1589, 17 November 1591, 30 May 1624 and 5 March 1641 increased the vicar’s stipend as the population grew and parish work became more arduous.

The royal decree of Philip II of 20 October 1602 created a curacy (curato) in this parish. The chapel of Our Lady of Grace, later converted into the parish church, was built at the end of the 15th century or the beginning of the 16th, and was enlarged, or rather rebuilt, in a year we cannot state precisely. An order of the Council of the Exchequer (Conselho de Fazenda) of 20 July 1690 directed that a new church be built; the works were contracted to Salvador Lopes for the sum of 1,395,000 réis. The royal decree of the Infanta Queen Catherine, regent of the Kingdom, of 27 June 1705, approved the transfer of the new church to another site, as ordered by the diocesan bishop, Dom José de Sousa de Castelo Branco. But was the new church actually built at that time? It is certain that the present church was built in 1791 and blessed in 1793. Is it likely that two churches were built within less than a century? We do not think so. Above the portico of the present church is a stone tablet bearing the following inscription: Mariae Patris Filiae Filii Matri Spiritus Sancti Sponsae hoc templum consecravit Aug. Reg. Maria Prima suae piae liberalitatis regio erario administro. Anno MDCCLXXXXI. (To Mary, Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, the August Queen Maria I consecrated this church out of her pious liberality, the royal treasury administering it. In the year 1791.)

The patron saint of this parish is Our Lady of Grace. Her image, venerated at the high altar of the parish church, is an exquisite sculpture, to whose cult and veneration Friar Agostinho de Santa Maria devotes a chapter in volume X of his Santuário Mariano.

The parish has the chapels of the Magi, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Pity and Our Lady of Deliverance, which we shall discuss elsewhere.

The present parish of Prazeres was once part of the parish of Estreito and was separated from it in 1733, when an independent curacy was created there by royal decree of 12 November of that year.

At the beginning of the 19th century the brothers Ricardo José de França and José Sebastião de França, sons of the captain-major (capitão-mor, commander of the local militia) José António de França, began to tap the waters of the Fontes dos Balcões, Água Negra and Assobiadores springs, intended to feed the levada (irrigation channel) they planned to build to irrigate the land of this and other parishes. In February 1811 they formed a company with other individuals to exploit and capture these waters, and petitioned the government in mainland Portugal for the concession, obtaining a favourable opinion from the corregedor (royal district magistrate) of the judicial district (comarca), Dr António Rodrigues Veloso de Oliveira.

The main localities (sítios) of this parish are Lombo dos Castanheiros, Lombo do Lameiro, Lombo dos Reis, Lombo dos Serrões, Lombo da Igreja, Lombo dos Moinhos, Lombo do Girão, Lombo da Fazendinha and Lombo da Ribeira Funda. The Ribeira de São Bartolomeu, to the east, separates this parish from that of Calheta, and the Ribeira Funda, to the west, separates it from the parish of Prazeres.

Besides the Levada do Rabaçal, Estreito da Calheta is irrigated by the Levada dos Moinhos, Levada Nova, Levada do Ribeiro do Farrobo and Levada dos Ferreiros. It has a state school for boys, founded around 1879, and one for girls, founded in 1911.

It has 2,300 inhabitants.