Our Lady of Consolation (chapels) 1The Caniço chapel and the Ornelas entail
Our Lady of Consolation (chapels)
Original title: Nossa Senhora da Consolação (Capelas de)
Describes four Madeiran chapels dedicated to Our Lady of Consolation: at the Ornelas entailed estate in Caniço, in Santa Luzia (Funchal), at Foro in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, and a former one in Arco da Calheta.
1The Caniço chapel and the Ornelas entail
Álvaro de Ornelas, who greatly distinguished himself as a navigator and whom his contemporaries called ‘the Great’, held vast lands granted as sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation) in the parish (freguesia) of Caniço (‘reed’). They stretched from the brook of Garajau (‘tern’) to the Ribeira do Porto Novo (‘new harbour’), and from the sea to the uplands. It was there that in 1499 he founded an entailed estate (morgadio), whose administration always passed from father to son and whose present representative is Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos (1921). The founder laid down as a clause that this entailed house (casa vinculada) ‘might be pledged only to ransom the administrator who, in the service of God and the king, should be held captive by the infidels.’ It was around 1591 that Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos founded, on lands of this entail (morgado), the chapel of Our Lady of Consolation (Nossa Senhora da Consolação), which still exists and belongs to the founder’s family. Together with its adjoining manor house, it became the seat of this entailed foundation (instituição vincular, a morgado or capela). It was to this house that the governor and captain-general Sá Pereira exiled in 1774 the holder of the entail, Agostinho António de Ornelas, who died there shortly afterwards, on 5 August of the same year. He was buried in the said chapel, and the marble of his family vault bears this inscription: ‘Tomb of Agostinho António de Ornellas e Vasconcellos, moço fidalgo (junior nobleman of the Royal Household) of the Royal Household, ninth lord of this entail. 1718 to 1774.’ This chapel stands in the locality (sítio) still called Quinta (‘estate’) today, which takes its name from the manor house adjoining the chapel, mentioned above.
2Chapels of Santa Luzia, Foro and Arco da Calheta
Beside the road that runs alongside the Levada de Santa Luzia (‘St Lucy’), almost at the point where it meets the Caminho da Torrinha (‘little tower’), stands the chapel of Our Lady of Consolation. Here, in the summer season, the novenas and the accompanying feast are celebrated with great splendour and draw large crowds. We do not know the year of its construction, but we presume that it dates from the end of the 16th century. It was small, and in 1861 it was suitably rebuilt and enlarged, being blessed in July of that year. The altar front, a fine old mosaic, belonged to the church of the Convent of St Francis. This chapel formed part of the parish of Monte (‘hill’) before the creation of the parish of Santa Luzia, within whose bounds it now lies.
The chapel of Our Lady of Consolation in the parish of Estreito de Câmara de Lobos (‘the narrows of Câmara de Lobos’) is more commonly known as the chapel of Foro (‘ground rent’), because it stands in the locality of that name. It was entailed, and we do not know the year of its construction. On 1 November each year a feast is held there, together with a well-attended arraial (open-air popular festival at a church feast) for the people of the surrounding area. Dr Álvaro de Azevedo says that a chapel dedicated to St James the Less once existed in the locality of Foro; we do not know whether it is the same as the one mentioned above or a different one.
Near the parish church of the parish of Arco da Calheta (‘arc of Calheta’) stood the chapel of Our Lady of Consolation, founded by Isabel de Abreu at the beginning of the 16th century.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 05-
D. Isabel de Abreu had the first chapel of Nossa Senhora da Conceição built at Amoreiras, Arco da Calheta.
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Álvaro de Ornelas instituted an entailed estate in Caniço.
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Aires de Ornelas de Vasconcelos founded the morgado and chapel of Nossa Senhora da Consolação at the Quinta, Caniço.
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Morgado Agostinho António de Ornelas, exiled by the governor, died at his manor in Caniço.
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The rebuilt Santa Luzia chapel was blessed.
Place
Places mentioned · 13- Chapel of Our Lady of Consolation · Subject
Santa Cruz
The Capelas de Nossa Senhora da Consolação are four Madeiran chapels dedicated to Our Lady of Consolation. They stand at the Ornelas entailed estate in Caniço, in Santa Luzia (Funchal) and at Foro in Estreito de Câmara de Lobos; a former one stood in Arco da Calheta.
- Arco da Calheta
Calheta. Parish of a former chapel of this dedication.
Arco da Calheta is a parish in the municipality of Calheta, created in 1572 around the chapel of São Brás, whose church holds sixteenth-century paintings. The Elucidário covers its early settlers such as the Andrades, sugar estates, chapels, entails, unrest in 1834 and 1887, and irrigation by the Rabaçal and Pico da Urze levadas.
- Caminho da Torrinha
Funchal. Road near the Santa Luzia chapel.
Road in Santa Luzia, Funchal, near the Santa Luzia chapel and giving access to the Quinta da Palmeira. An old wooden bridge used by pilgrims going to Monte met this path.
- Caniço
Santa Cruz. Parish of the Ornelas lands and chapel.
Caniço is a parish in the municipality of Santa Cruz, lying on the boundary between the captaincies of Funchal and Machico. Its early settlers included Gaspar Rego, Vasco Fernandes Rego and Álvaro de Ornelas, whose family founded morgados there; its alcaide and judge were appointed by the Funchal senate. The parish includes the Garajau statue, the Jesuits' Socorro residence and the Quinta do Barão da Conceição.
- Convent of St Francis
Funchal. Source of the chapel's mosaic altar front.
The Convento de São Francisco was a Franciscan convent in Funchal founded in 1473, which marked the western limit of the city in 1508. Its church was demolished in 1865, and its fittings, books, tombstones and bones went to the Angústias cemetery, the museum and the Municipal Library. Its buildings briefly lodged prisoners until 1836 and housed the police in 1857.
- Estreito de Câmara de Lobos
Câmara de Lobos. Parish of the Foro chapel.
Estreito de Câmara de Lobos is a parish in the municipality of Câmara de Lobos, Madeira, created in the early sixteenth century around the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Graça. It was the main centre of rye-straw hat weaving and cheese-making, grows Sercial, Verdelho, Tinta and Bastardo, and became a julgado of the Funchal comarca in 1927.
- Levada de Santa Luzia
Funchal. The chapel stands by the road alongside it.
The Levada de Santa Luzia is the oldest and most important private levada on Madeira, rising in the basin of the Santa Luzia stream and protected by a royal charter of 1515. In the 16th century it irrigated canefields; it crosses much of Santa Luzia parish, marking its northern limit, and is flanked by a road with views and quintas. Its commission disputed the Tornos springs with the Câmara, and a reservoir was built there in 1934.
- Monte
Funchal. Former parish of the chapel.
Parish of Nossa Senhora do Monte above Funchal, at about 600 m, where leafing occurs later than in Funchal. It contains the localities of Jardim Botânico, Igreja and Marmeleiros and the Quinta de Sant'Ana. The Elucidário notes its many plants, such as acacias and Sonchus fruticosus.
- Quinta
Santa Cruz. Locality named after the manor beside the chapel.
Inhabited locality in the parish of Caniço. It was the seat of one of Madeira's oldest entailed estates, founded by Álvaro de Ornelas in the late 15th century, and is named after the manor beside the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Consolação.
- Ribeira do Porto Novo
Santa Cruz. Boundary of the Ornelas lands.
Stream rising in the Serra do Poiso and Pico da Silva that separates Gaula from Caniço and Camacha. It feeds the Levada de Baixo and has the hamlet of Porto Novo at its mouth. The Forte do Porto Novo stood on its right bank, and it was a boundary of the Ornelas lands.
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People
People mentioned · 07-
Ninth lord of the Ornelas entail, exiled to the Caniço manor in 1774, where he died and was buried in the chapel.
- Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos1837–1880
Founded the Caniço chapel of Nossa Senhora da Consolação around 1591.
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Navigator called 'the Great' who held sesmaria lands in Caniço and founded an entail there in 1499.
- Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo1825–1898
Scholar cited as stating that a chapel of Santiago once stood at Foro.
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Governor and captain-general who exiled the morgado Agostinho António de Ornelas to Caniço in 1774.
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Founder of the Arco da Calheta chapel in the early 16th century.
- Daniel de Ornelas e Vasconcelos1837–1880
Representative of the Ornelas entail in 1921.