House of Dona Mécia
Original title: Mécia (Casa de Dona)
The 'Casa de Dona Mécia' is an old building in the Rua dos Aranhas, Funchal, formerly a teacher-training school and Protestant chapel, classified as a property of public interest in 1940.
The name ‘Casa de Dona Mécia’ is given to the old building in Funchal, in the Rua dos Aranhas, which we have already mentioned in this work (1-183). For some years it housed the Teacher Training School (Escola de Habilitação ao Magistério), and before that it was home to the Protestant church of the Ritualist sect. There was no shortage of people who took this house to be the setting of the tragic adventures that the distinguished Madeiran writer João Augusto de Ornelas fancifully devised in his curious novel A mão de Sangue. Others also gave credence to the interesting narrative by Camilo Castelo Branco in his book O Santo da Montanha (chs XXV–XXXI), which contains some useful details about Madeira.
Because of its old and typical construction, and certain features and peculiarities that distinguish it, the ‘Casa de Dona Mécia’ was included in September 1940, under a ministerial order (portaria) published in the Diário do Govêrno, in the list of national monuments and properties of public interest. It thus came under the direct authority of the public department that oversees these matters. The Casa de Dona Mécia was classified as a ‘property of public interest’.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 01Place
Places mentioned · 03- Mécia · Subject
Funchal
The Casa de Dona Mécia is an old building in the Rua dos Aranhas, Funchal. It formerly housed a teacher-training school and a Protestant chapel. It was classified as a property of public interest in 1940.
- Funchal
City where the house is located.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Rua dos Aranhas
Funchal. Street where the Casa de Dona Mécia stands.
Rua dos Aranhas is a Funchal street named after the Aranha family who lived there, and was formerly called Rua do Dr. Chaves. It contains the Casa de Dona Mécia and a surviving Gothic house of the Ornelas family. It was the site of the Anglican church opened in 1848, the Escola Normal and the Teatro Esperança, and the São Lázaro gate stood at its top until 1904.
People
People mentioned · 02-
Portuguese novelist whose book O Santo da Montanha contains a narrative some associated with this house.
- João Augusto de Ornelas1833–1886
Madeiran writer whose novel A Mão de Sangue was popularly linked with this house.