Administrative organisation 1Present-day municipalities and parishes
Administrative organisation
Original title: Organização Administrativa
Describes the administrative organisation of Madeira as the single district of Funchal, listing its eleven municipalities and their parishes, and traces the changes to municipal boundaries since the 1835 reform.
1Present-day municipalities and parishes
The province of Madeira forms a single administrative district, the district of Funchal, which is divided into 11 municipalities (concelhos). On the island of Madeira these are the municipalities of Funchal, Câmara de Lobos, Ribeira Brava, Ponta do Sol, Calheta, Porto Moniz, São Vicente, Santana, Machico and Santa Cruz; the municipality of Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’) lies on the island of that name. The Desertas (‘deserted islands’) and the Savage Islands (Selvagens) belong to the municipality of Funchal.
The following list gives the parishes into which the municipalities of the archipelago are subdivided. Municipality of Funchal: Sé, Santa Maria Maior, São Pedro, Santa Luzia, São Gonçalo, Monte, São Roque, Santo António and São Martinho. Municipality of Câmara de Lobos: Câmara de Lobos, Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, Quinta Grande and Curral das Freiras. Municipality of Ribeira Brava: Ribeira Brava, Campanário, Serra de Água and Tábua. Municipality of Ponta do Sol: Ponta do Sol, Canhas and Madalena. Municipality of Calheta: Calheta, Arco da Calheta, Estreito da Calheta, Prazeres, Paul, Jardim do Mar, Fajã da Ovelha and Ponta do Pargo. Municipality of Porto Moniz: Porto Moniz, Achadas da Cruz, Ribeira da Janela and Seixal. Municipality of São Vicente: São Vicente, Ponta Delgada and Boaventura. Municipality of Santana: Santana, São Jorge, Arco de São Jorge, Faial and São Roque do Faial. Municipality of Machico: Machico, Água de Pena (part), Caniçal, Santo António da Serra (part) and Porto da Cruz. Municipality of Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz, Água de Pena (part), Gaula, Caniço, Camacha and Santo António da Serra (part). Municipality of Porto Santo: Porto Santo.
2The 1835 organisation
Under the administrative organisation that came into force in Madeira in 1835, there were 10 municipalities, made up as follows:
Municipality of Funchal: it had the same organisation as at present.
Municipality of Câmara de Lobos: the parishes (freguesias) of Câmara de Lobos, Quinta Grande, Campanário, Estreito de Câmara de Lobos and Curral das Freiras. Municipality of Ponta do Sol: the parishes of Ponta do Sol, Tábua, Ribeira Brava, Serra de Água, Canhas and Madalena.
Municipality of Calheta: the parishes of Calheta, Arco da Calheta, Estreito da Calheta, Jardim do Mar, Prazeres, Paul and Fajã da Ovelha. Municipality of Porto Moniz: the parishes of Porto Moniz, Achadas da Cruz, Ribeira da Janela, Seixal and Ponta do Pargo. Municipality of São Vicente: the parishes of São Vicente, Ponta Delgada and Boaventura. Municipality of Santana: the parishes of Santana, São Roque do Faial, Faial, Porto da Cruz, São Jorge and Arco de São Jorge. Municipality of Machico: the parishes of Machico, Caniçal, Água de Pena and Santo António da Serra. Municipality of Santa Cruz: the parishes of Santa Cruz, Gaula, Caniço and Camacha. Municipality of Porto Santo: the parish of Porto Santo.
3Later changes and classification
Of the 10 municipalities (concelhos) mentioned above, only those of Funchal, São Vicente and Porto Santo have the same extent today as they had in 1835. Part of the parishes (freguesias) of Água de Pena and Santo António da Serra passed long ago to the municipality of Santa Cruz, under the authority granted to the Government by the law of 29 May 1843 to alter the territorial division of the municipalities. Since 1852 the parish of Porto da Cruz, which originally belonged to the municipality of Santana, has been incorporated into the municipality of Machico, in accordance with the decree of 19 October of that year. The municipality of Porto Moniz lost the parish of Ponta do Pargo, which was definitively annexed to the municipality of Calheta by the law of 26 June 1871. The municipalities of Câmara de Lobos and Ponta do Sol also had to give up parishes when the municipality of Ribeira Brava was established on 16 August 1914: the former ceded the parish of Campanário, and the latter the parishes of Ribeira Brava, Tábua and Serra de Água.
The decrees of 7 November 1849 and 10 December 1867, which abolished the municipality of Porto Moniz, incorporated the parishes of Porto Moniz, Seixal and Ribeira da Janela into the municipality of São Vicente, and that of Ponta do Pargo into the municipality of Calheta. When the same municipality was abolished once again by the decree of 18 November 1895, all the parishes that belonged to it passed to the municipality of São Vicente, with the exception of Achadas da Cruz, which was incorporated into the municipality of Calheta, to which, as we have seen, the parish of Ponta do Pargo already belonged.
The same decree of 10 December 1867 also abolished the municipalities of Câmara de Lobos, Santa Cruz and Santana. It annexed the parishes of Campanário, Quinta Grande, Câmara de Lobos, Estreito, Curral, Caniço and Camacha to the municipality of Funchal; the parishes of Santa Cruz, Gaula, Água de Pena, Santo António da Serra, Faial, São Roque do Faial and Santana to the municipality of Machico; and the parishes of São Jorge and Arco de São Jorge to the municipality of São Vicente.
Under the classification established by the Ministry of the Interior in November 1920, the municipality of Funchal is of the 1st class, the municipalities of Câmara de Lobos, Calheta and Ponta do Sol of the 2nd, and all the remaining municipalities of the 3rd. The law of 26 August 1922 altered what was stated on p. 219 of vol. I of this Elucidário: under that law, municipalities of the 1st class have 20 full councillors (vereadores), those of the 2nd 16, and those of the 3rd 12. The executive committees consist of 7, 5 and 3 councillors respectively.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 10-
A new administrative organisation gave Madeira ten municipalities, creating among others Câmara de Lobos, Santana (including Porto da Cruz, over Machico's protests), Porto Moniz, São Vicente, Calheta and a reorganised Ponta do Sol; Funchal's limits were fixed at the end of the year and the district head became Civil Governor.
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A law authorised the government to alter municipal boundaries, leading to parts of Água de Pena and Santo António da Serra passing to Santa Cruz.
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A decree abolished the municipality of Porto Moniz, whose parishes passed to Calheta; it was restored a few years later.
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A decree transferred the parish of Porto da Cruz from Santana to the municipality of Machico and moved some Machico localities to Santa Cruz.
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A short-lived decree abolished the municipalities of Câmara de Lobos, Santa Cruz, Porto Moniz and Santana, merging Porto Moniz's parishes into São Vicente; they were soon restored.
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A law definitively transferred the parish of Ponta do Pargo from the municipality of Porto Moniz to Calheta.
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A decree suppressed the Porto Moniz municipality for a second time, annexing its parishes to Calheta and São Vicente; it was restored in 1898.
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The municipality of Ribeira Brava was created by decree.
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The Ministry of the Interior classified Madeira's municipalities into three orders.
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A law fixed the number of municipal councillors by class of municipality.
Place
Places mentioned · 20
1 Abroad
- Achadas da Cruz
Porto Moniz. Parish incorporated into Calheta when Porto Moniz was abolished in 1895.
Achadas da Cruz is a small parish in the far north-west of Madeira, in the municipality of Porto Moniz; it grew from a sixteenth-century chapel and became an independent parish in 1848. It was transferred between municipalities several times: to Porto Moniz in 1835, briefly to Calheta in 1849–55, and to Calheta again when Porto Moniz was abolished in 1895. Its flat is the smallest plateau, with a crater-like lagoon 66 m across; free-ranging cattle and Euphorbia mellifera are found there. Other records include the benefactor Manuel de Pontes Câmara and the wreck of the yacht Varuna in 1909.
- Água de Pena
Machico. Parish divided between Machico and Santa Cruz.
Água de Pena is a parish between Santa Cruz and Machico, divided between the two municipalities, whose Porto do Seixo was visited by Zarco's discoverers in 1419. It was suppressed in 1836 and restored in 1848, is irrigated by the Juncal levada, and contains Bemposta, Cardais and Queimada.
- Calheta
Municipality that gained Ponta do Pargo and Achadas da Cruz.
Calheta is a town and municipality in western Madeira, created by royal charter of 1 July 1502. It later became the seat of a countship granted to the captains of Funchal and was reorganised as a concelho in 1835.
- Câmara de Lobos
Municipality abolished in 1867 and later restored, which lost Campanário in 1914.
Câmara de Lobos is a municipality of Madeira whose seat was historically a 'lugar' rather than a vila. The Elucidário quotes Gaspar Frutuoso's description of it and outlines the creation of the concelho in 1835 and later changes to its parishes.
- Campanário
Ribeira Brava. Parish transferred from Câmara de Lobos to Ribeira Brava in 1914.
Campanário is a parish in Madeira, formerly part of Câmara de Lobos and later joined to the municipality of Ribeira Brava, drained by the Ribeira do Campanário (or da Lapa). The Elucidário records its landing, its band, its capitania-mor, its tithes paid to the Jesuits, a former chapel of St John founded in 1728, and the vicar sentenced by the Alçada of 1823. It was also the birthplace of Bishop D. Manuel Joaquim Gonçalves de Andrade and the jurist Francisco Justino Gonçalves de Andrade.
- Desertas
Santa Cruz. Islands belonging to Funchal municipality.
An island group near Madeira that was already separated from it at the last eruptions and shares endemic species with it. It was the main orchil-harvesting area, and Wollaston found 89 beetle species there. The islands were investigated by scientific expeditions, including the Endurance scientists in 1914.
- District of Funchal
Portugal. The single administrative district covering the whole archipelago.
The Distrito do Funchal is the single administrative district covering the whole Madeira archipelago. The Elucidário cites its mortality statistics for 1917.
- Funchal
First-order municipality, which also includes the Desertas and Selvagens.
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.
- Machico
Municipality that gained Porto da Cruz in 1852.
Machico is a town and municipality of Madeira set in a valley. The Elucidário traces its municipal history from its probable creation around 1451, through the loss of territory to Santa Cruz, São Vicente and Santana. It also records its arms, its privileges and its new town hall of 1929.
- Ponta do Pargo
Calheta. Parish annexed definitively to Calheta in 1871.
Ponta do Pargo is a parish at Madeira's western extremity, transferred from Porto do Moniz to Calheta municipality in 1871, where a lighthouse long demanded was first lit in 1922. It is watered by the old Rabaçal levada, grows Sercial vines, gives its name to a white cattle sub-breed, and was the birthplace of Manuel da Costa Dias and João Pestana Júnior.
- Ponta do Sol
Municipality that lost three parishes to Ribeira Brava in 1914.
Town and municipality of Ponta do Sol on Madeira, an early sugar-producing centre raised to a town in 1501. The Elucidário traces the changes in its municipal territory and its role as seat of a judicial district (comarca).
- Porto da Cruz
Machico. Parish moved from Santana to Machico in 1852.
North-coast parish created in 1577 and noted for good-quality wines. It was transferred from Santana to Machico municipality in 1852 and was the seat of a capitania-mor. It was also a fishing port where some sperm whales were landed.