Inscribed stones

As a contribution to the study of Madeiran epigraphy that may one day be undertaken, we record here a number of lapidary inscriptions. Some were already included in the first edition of this work; others we came across in the course of our research into the history of our archipelago. In this way we offer some scattered and still little-known material that may prove useful in preparing that interesting study. All of them belong to relatively recent periods and are of no particular interest for their antiquity, since the history of Madeira began some five hundred years ago and the events recorded can go back no further than the middle of the 15th century. Where the exact dates of events are not known, we have always tried to give the approximate year in which they occurred. João Gonçalves Zarco was buried in the chancel of the church of Conceição de Cima (today the Convent of St Clare), which he had founded. It is stated in some places, though there is no proof of it, that his ashes were moved to the tomb of his son-in-law Martim Mendes de Vasconcelos, which stands beside the choir of the same church. We dealt with this matter at some length in the article Zargo in the first edition of this Elucidário, and it is very strange that this church contains no funerary inscription referring to the first captain-donatary (capitão-donatário) of Funchal. He must have died around 1467.

In 1919 a gravestone was discovered beside the high altar of this church, bearing the following inscription: Tomb of João Gonçalves da Câmara, second captain of the Island. On the same occasion and in the same place another tombstone was found, which preserves these words: Tomb of Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, 3rd captain of this Island. Here lies Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, Count of Calheta (‘small cove’) and fifth captain of this island.

Regarding the tomb of Martim Mendes de Vasconcelos, mentioned above, the following is to be read on p. 594 of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra): ‘... in the church of the Convent of St Clare, at the entrance, on the right-hand side, is the sarcophagus of this Martim Mendes de Vasconcelos, with an inscription in Gothic capitals, illegible because worn; but in the adjacent pavement is seen a large marble slab bearing the following epitaph: “Tomb of Captain Gaspar Mendes de Vasconcellos, which he had made for himself and his heirs when the first gravestone placed here was removed, as descendant of the first Martim Mendes de Vasconcellos, who lies here and came to this island to marry Elena Gliz da Câmara, daughter of João Gonçalves Zargo, its discoverer. It was made in the year 1710”.’

Another son-in-law of João Gonçalves Zarco was Diogo Cabral, who died in 1486 and was buried in the chapel of Our Lady of the Star (Nossa Senhora da Estrela), which he had founded in the parish (freguesia) of Calheta, at the locality (sítio) that still bears that name. Twenty years ago the stone that covered the mortal remains of Diogo Cabral was removed to the parish cemetery and reused for an ordinary grave, after the coat of arms and the epitaph of Zargo’s son-in-law had been scraped off – all of which constitutes an unspeakable abuse.

Not far from there, at the locality of Serra de Água (‘water sawmill’) in the parish of Arco da Calheta (‘arc of Calheta’), stood the chapel of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (Nossa Senhora da Conceição), founded by Gonçalo Fernandes in the first half of the 16th century. About ten years ago a fairly old tombstone was found there with this inscription: Tomb of Gil y Enes, master mason of the Sé. It is now kept in the Funchal Municipal Museum (Museu Municipal do Funchal). According to Henrique Henriques de Noronha, in his highly interesting and respected Memorias, Gil Enes was ‘the architect of the whole work’ of the Cathedral (Sé Catedral) of Funchal.

This is the moment to mention a tomb in our Cathedral, situated beside the side door on the north side. It is covered by two cut-out bronze figures laid side by side, and the pamphlet Laminas Sepulcrais de Bronze by the distinguished archaeologist Pedro Vitorino says the following about it: ‘The figures measure about 0.90 in height. One is mutilated. They rest on a slab, possibly Belgian blue stone. . The very small series of sepulchral plates in our country offers us examples of the two known types: a stone to which the figure, cut out of a metal plate, is fixed (Funchal). . . and a whole sheet of metal. formed of several pieces.’

As Pedro Vitorino says, such tombs are very rare in our country, and this specimen in the Cathedral, the only one in Madeira, therefore deserves the greatest care in its conservation. It has been claimed, without foundation, that the Fleming João Esmeraldo, who died in 1536, and his wife were buried there. The date 1425 is carved on the lintel of the portal of the chapel of St Catherine (Santa Catarina). It is presumably meant to mark the year in which the settlement of Madeira began, and perhaps the year this chapel was built, although one may conjecture that the stone belonged not to the original building but to a rebuilding later than the date shown. It was the first church built in Madeira, and we dealt with it in a detailed article published in the Jornal of 27 October 1942.

In the Angústias Cemetery (‘Sorrows’) there is a marble stone that was formerly in the old Convent of St Francis (São Francisco), bearing this epitaph: ‘Here lies Lois Alvares da Costa, who founded this house in the year 1473, and his son Francisco Alvares da Costa, first ouvidor (judicial officer of the donatary or the Crown) and overseer of the royal treasury (vedor da fazenda) in these islands of Madeira’. When the church of this convent was demolished in 1865 and many of the bones it contained were moved to the Angústias Cemetery, the stone was used to cover these mortal remains, and the following words were inscribed on it: ‘Family vault of the bones exhumed from the former convent and church of São Francisco (to which the original inscription refers), transferred on 2 May 1865’.

In 1562 Filipe Gentil de Limoges founded a chapel dedicated to St Philip in the parish (freguesia) of Santa Maria Maior (‘St Mary Major’), at the locality (sítio) that still bears the name of this chapel today. In it is a tombstone with this strange inscription: ‘Grave of the innocents who were tyrannically killed at the Achada of this city 1612’. The foundling nurse (ama dos expostos) of the time took in newborn children, killed them and buried them at the locality of the Achada (‘plateau’). Their bones were gathered some years later and laid beneath the floor of the chapel, where the stone was placed, as described above.

More than thirty years ago, during excavations at the barracks of the 25th Infantry Regiment (infantaria n.º 25), the former Jesuit College (Colégio dos Jesuítas), a large block of dressed stone (cantaria) two and a half metres long was found, bearing the following Latin inscription: ‘Altissimus creavit medicinam de terra et vir prudens non abhorrebit illam’, which the translator Pereira de Figueiredo renders thus: ‘It is the Most High who has brought forth all medicines from the earth, and the prudent man will not oppose them’. It is verse 4 of chapter XXXVIII of the Book of Ecclesiasticus in the Old Testament, which praises medicine and those who practise that noble and beneficent profession. In the church of the same College of St John the Evangelist (Colégio de São João Evangelista) there are several chapels that served as mausoleums for their founders and descendants, with their tombstones and inscriptions giving the names of the patrons and the dates of their deaths.

The old chapel of the Varadouros, so called because of where it stood, was demolished around 1682 and rebuilt in 1689, when the well-known Portão dos Varadouros was built there. The gate became the main entrance to the city, through which bishops and governors made their solemn and ceremonious entry into Funchal. The chapel had been rebuilt over the arch of this gate, which bore at its top a stone with a curious Latin inscription, transcribed on page 628 of the annotations to the ‘Longing for the Homeland’.

Around the third quarter of the 15th century a small chapel is said to have been built on the lombada (long ridge between valleys) of Lombada da Ponta do Sol, later called Lombada dos Esmeraldos. On the same site the Fleming João Esmeraldo built the chapel of the Holy Spirit (Santo Espírito), which was solemnly consecrated by the titular bishop Dom João in 1508. It was rebuilt in the first quarter of the 18th century, and on one of its interior walls there is a marble plaque with the inscription: ‘This church was consecrated by Dom João Lobo, Bishop of Tangier, on 27 August 1508’. This is perhaps the same plaque that had been in the original building.

On the façades of the parish churches of Santo António, Caniço and Estreito da Calheta there are three lapidary inscriptions bearing the dates 1783, 1789 and 1791, the years in which these churches were built. All are written in Latin and give the names of their titular saints or patrons. On the front of the parish church of Tábua can be read the words: ‘King Dom Pedro 1696’.

In the chapel of Nossa Senhora do Pópulo (Our Lady del Popolo), in the parish (freguesia) of Santo António, which belonged to the residence the Jesuits owned there, there was a marble stone carved with these interesting words: ‘In memory of the glorious martyrs of the Society of Jesus, Father Inácio de Azevedo and his 39 companions, who, sailing for Brazil in the year 1579, on 15 July, within sight of the island of La Palma, earned the crown of martyrdom for the faith of Christ, cast into the sea by the heretics; and who, having stayed at this quinta (country estate) of Pico do Cardo, came to this place with their cross and here performed their devotions. This was erected for the greater glory of God in the year 1745’. The events to which this stone refers are narrated at length on pages 125 ff. of the book Paróquia de Santo António da Ilha da Madeira by Father Fernando Augusto da Silva.

The church of São Tiago Menor (St James the Less), now the parish church of the parish of Santa Maria Maior, preserves on its façade a stone with a Latin inscription recording the grant made in 1803 by the Funchal Municipal Council to the State, so that the church might serve as a parish church. This was because the great flash flood (aluvião) of that year had destroyed the original church, which then stood between the Largo dos Lavradores and the public fountain known as the Poço de Nossa Senhora do Calhau (Well of Our Lady of Calhau).

In the vestibule of the majestic building of the Princess Maria Amélia Hospice there is a black marble stone bearing a detailed inscription on the foundation and construction of this excellent hospital for tuberculosis patients, which opened in 1862.

All the fortresses and coastal defence works built in Madeira, and particularly in this city, bore curious lapidary inscriptions, of which Dr Álvaro de Azevedo’s annotations to Gaspar Frutuoso’s book give a full account.