Macedo (Dom Álvaro da Costa de Sousa)

Dom Álvaro da Costa de Sousa Macedo was the last governor and captain-general of this archipelago, and the last representative that the absolutist government had here in Madeira. He took up office on 1 April 1830 and left Madeira on 13 July 1834.

Not only did Dom Álvaro de Macedo offer not the slightest resistance to the proclamation of constitutional government on this island, but he fully accepted the new order of things. Had he wished, he could even have remained governor of Madeira, following the invitation made to him directly by the monarch himself, Pedro IV.

Although he remained at the head of the government of this province during the turbulent period of our civil wars, when hatreds and deep dissensions divided the Madeiran family into two irreconcilable factions, he knew how to conduct himself so as not to inflame these party divisions. As far as circumstances allowed, he maintained an attitude of remarkable impartiality, which won him the esteem and regard of the people of this island.

Despite the spirit of rectitude and justice that moved him and the conciliatory tendencies that guided the acts of his administration, there came a moment when he allowed himself to be swept along by the despotic demands of party politics. Yielding to the entreaties of his fellow partisans and bad advisers, he ordered the Teatro Grande do Funchal (‘great theatre of Funchal’) to be demolished down to its foundations. It was the second-largest theatre in the country and had been built some sixty years earlier.

This theatre, of which we shall speak at greater length, stood in the square that the people still call the Largo da Fortaleza today. Its capacity and proportions exceeded what a small provincial place such as Funchal required, and as a whole it had an air of grandeur and majesty that made a most pleasing impression on visitors. On some performance nights, supporters of constitutional ideas took advantage of the large gathering of spectators to give vent to their liberal sentiments and to spread the principles they professed. This propaganda spread from the stage to the stalls, even though it constituted a sacrilege (desacato) against the institutions.

That was the true cause of the demolition. Simply closing the theatre would have saved it from complete destruction. Dom Álvaro de Macedo, however, claimed that the building stood next to a fortress, hindering the defence of the city, and that it also disfigured the site and the entrance to the governors’ palace. He therefore took the drastic step of having it demolished, leaving not one stone upon another.

Dom Álvaro de Macedo had been granted the title of Count of Madeira. He died in France a few years after leaving this island. He was the uncle of Dom Bernardo da Costa de Sousa Macedo, who twice served as civil governor (governador civil) of this district (distrito).