Lyceum

Until 1759, the year in which they were expelled from this island, secondary education in our archipelago was entrusted chiefly to the members of the Society of Jesus. In their College (Colégio), where the 27th Infantry Regiment (regimento de infantaria n.º 27) is quartered today, the Jesuits taught the humanities in the so-called Aulas do Pátio ('Courtyard Classes', the public secondary classes held in the former Jesuit college), which formed part of the same College. There, besides a course in theology, they directed the subjects of Portuguese and Latin, philosophy and rhetoric (see Jesuits).

In 1772, by a royal letter (carta régia) of 6 November, the Marquis of Pombal established in Madeira three classes of Latin, one of Greek, one of rhetoric and one of philosophy, thus making good the gap left by the abolition of the course run by the Jesuits. At the beginning of the 19th century, classes in drawing and painting and in arithmetic and geometry were created in this city, and later classes in French and English. Some of these subjects were taught in the former Aulas do Pátio and the rest in other State buildings. These studies lacked a suitable scientific and literary organisation, nor did their direction follow definite teaching methods and syllabuses. Above all, they lacked a management that would give them unity and make of them a systematic and regular course.

The decree of 17 November 1836 established a lyceum (state secondary school) in the capital of each district of the mainland and the Adjacent Islands (Ilhas Adjacentes), in which ten chairs or subjects were to be taught. It thereby brought to an end the classes that had previously been held in scattered fashion throughout the country.

The governor of this archipelago, António de Gamboa e Liz, was ordered to carry out the decree and to establish the lyceum (state secondary school) in this city. The building chosen was that of the former Aulas do Pátio (‘Courtyard Classes’, the public secondary classes held in the former Jesuit college). The first council of teachers met there, and the new educational establishment was installed on 12 September 1837. Its opening, a very solemn occasion, took place on 10 October following, and regular classes began on that same day.

The first teachers, appointed provisionally, who held chairs there were Dr Manuel Joaquim Moniz, who served as acting rector, Dr João de Freitas e Almeida, Marceliano Ribeiro de Mendonça and Alexandre Luís da Cunha; all were made permanent by decree of 17 September 1838. By a decree of the same date, Dr Lourenço José Moniz was appointed titular professor and permanent rector of our lyceum. Francisco de Andrade began to hold a chair as a provisional teacher at the start of the 1838 academic year, and was made permanent on 19 November of the same year.

The following were successively appointed permanent teachers: Dr Luís da Costa Pereira (1850), José Camilo Delanave (1854), Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo (1855), Dr Joaquim Camelo Lampreia (1859), Dr Manuel José Vieira (1861), João Fortunato de Oliveira (1863), Dr José Leite Monteiro (1867), Daniel Simões Soares (1881), Dr Maurício Augusto Sequeira (1887), Father Ricardo Augusto Sequeira (1887), etc.

The rectors of this lyceum have been Dr Manuel Joaquim Moniz (1837), Dr Lourenço José Moniz (1838), Marceliano Ribeiro de Mendonça (1850), Francisco de Andrade (1866), Dr Nuno Silvestre Teixeira (1881), Canon Manuel Esteves Fazenda (1900), Dr Nuno Silvestre Teixeira (1900), Dr António Augusto Pereira da Silva (1910), Aníbal Sertório dos Santos Pereira, Dr Damião Peres, Dr Joaquim Carlos de Sousa, Dr Alberto Figueira Jardim, Dr António Luís Franco and Dr Ângelo Augusto da Silva.

Among the teachers now deceased, some were regarded as truly outstanding figures in education, not only for the brilliant way in which they held their chairs but also for the valuable works they published on the subjects they taught there: Francisco de Andrade with his grammars of the Portuguese language, Marceliano Ribeiro with a Latin grammar and his studies on philosophy, and Dr Álvaro de Azevedo with a book on literary criticism and a textbook of reading, philology and composition.

Among the reports written by the rectors, those of Marceliano Ribeiro de Mendonça and Dr Nuno Silvestre Teixeira stand out, and some of them have been printed. Special mention, however, is due to the valuable Anuários (yearbooks) published in recent years and compiled by the distinguished rector Dr Ângelo Augusto da Silva.

We believe that the ten chairs or subjects established by the decree of 17 November 1836 were not all taught in our lyceum from its foundation, and that they were only actually taught in the years immediately following. We cannot trace the various phases through which teaching at the lyceum of this city has passed across the many reforms of secondary education, because that would demand patient research that the shortness of time and the narrow scope of this work do not allow us to undertake. As we have said, the lyceum was installed in the former Aulas do Pátio (‘Courtyard Classes’, the public secondary classes held in the former Jesuit college), which were outbuildings of the Jesuit College (Colégio dos Jesuítas) with access from Rua dos Ferreiros (‘blacksmiths’). It remained there for more than 40 years. In January 1881 it was transferred to a house in the same street, a former manor house of the Vasconcelos de Couto Cardoso entail-holders which later belonged to the Barons of São Pedro (‘St Peter’), and there it began to operate on the 11th of the same month and year. In January 1914 it moved to the former bishop's palace (Paço Episcopal), in the old Rua do Bispo, today Rua Gomes Freire, where it is at present (1921) housed; in 1880 it had also spent some time in outbuildings of the Palácio de São Lourenço (‘St Lawrence’).

The pamphlet Cem Anos de Vida Escolar, by the teacher J. R. Basto Machado, published in 1937 to mark the first centenary of the founding of the Funchal lyceum, contains some information of interest for the history of this educational establishment.

For a long time the local press and every rector who has headed our lyceum never ceased to insist on the pressing need to build a building to house that important institution of secondary education in proper pedagogical conditions. After careful studies of the most suitable site and of how to carry out so costly a construction, the District General Council (Junta Geral do Distrito) resolved to take the initiative in this undertaking of such remarkable social and educational significance. To that end it obtained from the central government the transfer of the former Military Hospital (Hospital Militar) of this city, which was authorised by the decree of 5 September 1936. Work on the sumptuous building began shortly afterwards and proceeded rapidly and without interruption. By October 1942 all the lyceum’s services had been installed in the new building, meeting one of the great needs of our community, and classes began on the 8th of that month and year.