Our Lady of Loreto (chapel)

About this chapel, an old book in the parish archive of the parish (freguesia) of Arco da Calheta (‘arc of Calheta’) contains the following passage: ‘this chapel is magnificent in its architecture and workmanship; it was built in the early days of this parish... its first founder was an illustrious man of the most notable family of the Câmaras, as the escutcheon of his arms above the main door shows. . . in this chapel lies the seat of an entail (morgado) which the priors of the Esperança of Lisbon administered for many years... and it comprises all the properties that the Ribeiro do Ledo (‘Ledo brook’) divides on the eastern side. . . .’. Henrique Henriques de Noronha gives the following further details: ‘Pedro Gonçalves da Câmara, 3rd son of the second donatary João Gonçalves da Câmara, married Dona Joana de Eça, who was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catherine, wife of John III. . . he rebuilt the monastery of the Esperança, in Portugal, and built the chapel of Our Lady of Loreto (Nossa Senhora do Loreto), in Arco da Calheta, where he had noble houses, of which nothing but ruins can be seen today: his portrait can be seen in that chapel’. Dona Joana de Sá left this chapel and the lands attached to it to the nuns of the Convento da Esperança (Convent of Our Lady of Hope), Lisbon, who in turn sold them to Jean de Béthencourt, and he established there the seat of an entailed estate (morgadio). We have read somewhere that it was built in the year 1510.