Military Hospital

More than a century ago, when other ranks of the Madeira military garrison fell ill, they were taken into the hospital of the Holy House of Mercy (Santa Casa da Misericórdia) of this city. Pleading a shortage of resources and the lack of a suitable ward in which to maintain an infirmary set aside for that purpose, the board of that institution more than once put to the higher authorities the need for a small hospital, independent and separate from that of the Holy House (Santa Casa, the Misericórdia) and subject only to the military authorities of what was then an overseas province. For their part, the governors and captains-general supported the proposals of the Holy House and pressed for the creation of a modest hospital.

The exact year of its establishment is not known, but it is known to have been created in the period between 1820 and 1824. From January of the former year there survives an official letter sent by the governor and captain-general Sebastião Xavier Botelho to the government in mainland Portugal, pressing for its creation. From 1824 there is a known official document containing various references to the activity of the new hospital, which would have been established shortly before that year of 1824.

It is recorded that it was first housed in a town building in Rua do Castanheiro known as Dona Guiomar’s house (Casa de D. Guiomar), a fairly spacious building whose construction had not been fully completed, and where the hospital did not remain for long. It then moved to a house ‘in Rua das Mercês, above the chapel of the same name’, that is, near the present building of the public welfare institution known as the Auxílio Maternal.

A ministerial order (portaria) dated 14 February 1849 authorised the hospital’s move to the house in Rua da Rochinha de Baixo, with a right of way to Rua de Santiago, where it operated until last year, 1938. The house had been private property and had passed into the possession of the State Treasury (Fazenda Pública) for non-payment of the taxes due on it.

Once the idea of using the various premises of the old military hospital had been definitively accepted, as the most suitable site for the construction of the building to house our lyceum (state secondary school), the necessary steps were at once taken to acquire the old mansion in Rua da Rochinha. For that purpose it was ceded to the District General Council (Junta Geral) of this district by the decree of 5 September 1936, which empowered this administrative body to expropriate the surrounding land that might prove indispensable for the planned building.

The Directorate-General of Public Assistance (Direcção Geral da Assistência Pública), acting on behalf of the Ministry of War, proposed to the Crown Revenue Office (Provedoria) of the Holy House of Mercy (Santa Casa da Misericórdia) of Funchal that other ranks and officers requiring hospital treatment be admitted to the Marmeleiros Hospital (Hospital dos Marmeleiros). The Managing Board (Mesa Gerente) of the Holy House promptly agreed, subject to certain conditions, which the Directorate-General of Public Assistance accepted.

In September and October 1938, through official correspondence between the Military Command (Comando Militar) of Madeira and the Managing Board of the Holy House of Mercy, the conditions for admitting patients from the island’s military garrison to the Marmeleiros Hospital were finally settled. The first patients were admitted there on 22 November of that year.