Old Funchal

In the short article devoted specifically to the raising of the old town (vila) of Funchal to the rank of city, we transcribed the royal decree (alvará régio) of 21 August 1508 that brought this about. Here we now wish to give a brief idea of what Funchal must have been like at that time, as regards the few narrow streets that then made up its limited extent. Since this is not easy to do with great topographical precision, we shall confine ourselves to a light sketch, presenting the scant material available for the purpose.

The church whose patron saint was Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (Nossa Senhora da Conceição), commonly known as Our Lady of Calhau (Nossa Senhora do Calhau), and which was destroyed by the flash flood (aluvião) of 1803, was already built by 1508 on the left bank of the Ribeira de João Gomes, near the spot where the so-called Poço do Calhau (‘well of the pebble shore’) stands today. To the east of this church lay Rua dos Balcões (‘balconies’) and Rua de Santa Maria. The latter was probably shorter than it is now, but it had many large, well-built houses in which a number of noblemen and wealthy men lived.

The Largo do Pelourinho (‘pillory’), Rua Direita (‘straight street’) and Rua dos Mercadores existed in 1508, though certainly with a very different appearance from the one they present now. The Largo do Pelourinho was planted with trees, probably native species, and on the site where Rua da Cadeia Velha now runs stood an enormous til (Ocotea foetens, Madeiran laurel) which, in the words of Manuel Tomaz, ‘embraced two streams with its outstretched branches’: the Ribeira de João Gomes and the Ribeira de Santa Luzia (‘St Lucy’).

By that time Rua do Sabão and Rua do Esmeraldo also existed. In the latter stood the noble house of João Esmeraldo, a Flemish knight who had come to Madeira in 1480, and near it the granary of the Poço, which had been the residence of Christopher Columbus and where, according to tradition, the original customs house of Funchal was housed.

The Chapel of Varadouros (‘slipways’), demolished in 1911, already existed in 1508. Of the present customs house building, however, if anything existed at all, it can only have been the foundations, for it was in that year that the order came from mainland Portugal for it to be built.

The first parish church was the church of Our Lady of Calhau, but in 1508 the parish was transferred to the so-called great church, whose patron saint is Nossa Senhora da Assunção (Our Lady of the Assumption). Its construction had begun in 1493, funded by the revenues of the wine levy (imposição do vinho), and after the bishopric of Funchal was created in 1514 it became, as it still is, the Cathedral. Only in 1558 was the city divided into two parishes, that of the Sé (Funchal Cathedral) and that of Santa Maria Maior (‘St Mary Major’), and from then on the church of Our Lady of Calhau became a parish church once again.

Beyond Rua dos Mercadores, at the point where the entrance to the city now stands, there were a few houses, but the place looked very different from how it does at present. The Fort of São Lourenço (St Lawrence) had not yet been built, and on the ground now occupied by Praça da Constituição (‘Constitution Square’) there were plantations of sugar cane. These probably extended to somewhere near Rua da Carreira (‘track’), since the building of the Hospital of St Elizabeth of Portugal was begun only after 1686.

When Funchal was raised to the status of a city, there was a small hospital in the street now called Rua do Hospital Velho. Before that there had been another establishment of the same kind beside the chapel of São Paulo (St Paul the Apostle), already outside the settlement, on land granted by the donatary (donatário) of the island on 25 March 1454.

The Council’s house, then known as the Curral do Concelho, stood in the locality (sítio) where Avenida António José de Almeida now meets Rua da Alfândega, and in Largo de São Sebastião stood the chapel dedicated to this saint, which was one of the first churches built on the island. Rua dos Ferreiros (‘blacksmiths’) ran to a little above the Colégio church (Igreja do Colégio, the Jesuit college church), which was built after the period we are describing. Near the present-day Travessa de João de Oliveira there stood for many years a building that we ourselves knew, whose construction must have dated back to the reign of Manuel I.

The recolhimento (religious retreat house for women) of Bom Jesus (Retreat of the Good Jesus) did not yet exist in 1508, nor did the street in which it stands, nor Rua das Hortas. The church of Carmo (‘Carmel’) had not yet been built either, but the street that took its name from that church must have existed at the time. It connected with Rua Direita by the street later called Rua da Cadeia Velha and by Rua da Margem da Ribeira. It is likely that a wooden bridge at the end of Rua Direita linked the two banks of the Ribeira de Santa Luzia.

Rua da Carreira, the widest street in the settlement, though very different in appearance from today, probably did not extend beyond Rua dos Aranhas, which was built later. Close by lay the Mouraria (‘Moorish quarter’), where the captive Moors lived. Rua das Pretas also existed in 1508, but the church of São Pedro was begun only later.

Outside the city stood the Convent of St Clare (Santa Clara), built in 1492 near the residence of the donatary, which was probably on the quinta (country estate) now called Quinta das Cruzes. There were also the chapels of São Paulo and of St Catherine, the latter with an attached hospice (hospício) where poor women lived. It is possible that the Hospital de São Lázaro (St Lazarus) had already been built by 1508.

Where Rua 5 de Junho and the lanes that run into it now lie, there were a great many hovels in which the poorest people of the settlement lived. To the west stretched extensive plantations of vines and sugar cane, which must have covered the ground now crossed by Rua da Imperatriz, Calçada da Cabouqueira and part of Rua da Carreira. The churches of Santa Luzia and Santa Maria Maior, the Convento da Encarnação (Convent of the Incarnation), the convent of the Mercês and the curtain wall (cortina, the defensive wall of the city) were all built after 1508. By that time, however, the Convent of São Francisco (St Francis of Assisi) already existed, on the site where the Jardim de São Francisco is today, as did the chapel of São João.

At that time, although they looked different from today, the little streets of João Tavira, Santa Catarina (‘St Catherine’), Cidrão and Hospital Velho already existed, as did the squares of Corpo Santo and São Paulo, besides other squares and streets whose names have not survived in local tradition.

From what has been said, then, it is clear that although the Funchal of 1508 was much smaller than the present city, it nonetheless covered an area large enough to form a city. To the west it extended a little beyond the convent of São Francisco, without, however, reaching the Ribeira de São João. To the east it reached as far as the chapel of St Elmo (Corpo Santo), which even in Frutuoso’s time adjoined the first houses of the city. Finally, to the north its limits were the Rua do Hospital Velho, the Rua do Carmo – which probably did not go beyond the point where the church stands – the Rua da Carreira, the Rua das Pretas and the Mouraria.

But it was not only its size that commended the foremost settlement of Madeira in the time of King Manuel I. It was also commended by its climate, by its landing place and by being the centre of the industry and shipping of the whole archipelago. It is possible that all these circumstances contributed, more or less directly, to leading the monarch to sign the decree that raised the town (vila) founded by Zargo to the rank of city.