Bishop’s palace

When Pope Leo X created the diocese of Funchal by the papal bull Pro excellenti preeminentia of 14 June 1514, the magnificent church that today serves as the Cathedral was already almost finished, its construction having begun at the end of the 15th century or in the first years of the 16th century. The same could not be said of the bishop’s palace.

The first prelate of Funchal to reside here was Dom Jorge de Lemos, and we do not know which dwelling houses he occupied in this city. Jerónimo Barreto was the second bishop to come to this island and, according to Frutuoso, he lived in Rua Direita (‘straight street’), ‘in very rich apartments, with their cool gardens’ (vol. I, p. 365).

When Luís de Figueiredo e Lemos, the seventh prelate of Funchal and the third to come in person to administer his bishopric, arrived in Madeira in 1586, he took up residence in Rua das Pretas, in some private houses that later belonged to the chief standard-bearer (alferes-mor) of this island, Tristão Gomes de Castro, and where his predecessors are said to have had their usual residence already. It was this prelate, one of the most illustrious of this diocese, which he governed from 1586 to 1608, who built the old bishops’ palace and also the original seminary building, which adjoined it. Of these there remain some apartments, the episcopal chapel and a kind of cloister, a structure typical of old conventual residences, which today form outbuildings of the present palace in Rua do Bispo. The chapel, which ceased to be used for worship after the new bishop's palace (Paço Episcopal) was built, was dedicated to São Luís de Tolosa (St Louis of Toulouse), and its founder, who died in this city on 26 November 1608, was buried there. In view of the state of complete neglect into which this old chapel had fallen, the prelate of this diocese, Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto, had the mortal remains of Luís de Figueiredo e Lemos transferred from there in 1903 to Funchal Cathedral (Sé). They lie just inside the entrance of the church, covered by the same white marble tombstone that could be seen on the original grave.

Bishop Dom Friar António Teles da Silva (1675–1682) enlarged the original palace, and the prelate Dom José de Sousa de Castelo Branco (1698–1721) incorporated into it the adjoining seminary, when the latter moved to the street of the New Convent (Rua do Mosteiro Novo). The earthquake felt in Madeira on the night of 31 March to 1 April 1748 caused considerable damage throughout the island to many public and private buildings, and the old bishops’ palace and the adjoining seminary were also badly ruined. The bishop of Funchal at the time was Dom João do Nascimento, who governed this diocese from 1741 to 1753. He proved an eminent prelate who marked his time on this island with various notable works, both in the performance of his episcopal duties and in serving for some years as acting governor and captain-general of this archipelago.

It is to him that we owe the building of the bishop's palace, where the lyceum (state secondary school) is housed today (1921). Obliged to abandon the old residence of the bishops, which the earthquake had left in ruins, he promptly set about building a new palace, which he planned to raise near the Cathedral (the Sé). The insurmountable difficulties that arose in acquiring a new site forced him to make use of that of the ruined palace, which was entirely demolished, except for the part that still stands today. There he had the new bishop's palace built from its foundations. Although it is a heavy building devoid of any architectural refinement, it is nonetheless, for this small city and for the period in which it was built, a building of some importance, and one that in no way dishonoured the rank of its occupants.

The new palace was built in the period from 1748 to 1751. Its founder spent about ten contos de réis (conto: one million réis) on it, and the public treasury contributed a roughly equal sum, so that the total cost of the work was twenty contos de réis, an amount which, spent 170 years ago, represents a considerable sum today. (1921)

To bring this work to completion, Dom João do Nascimento had to struggle against very grave difficulties, which his unshakeable tenacity was able to master and overcome.

He enjoyed his work for only a short time, for he died on 26 November 1753. He lies buried in the Cathedral of this city.

After the death of the prelate Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto in 1911, the bishop's palace passed into the possession of the National Treasury (Fazenda Nacional), and the city’s lyceum was installed there in January 1914.

When the present prelate of this diocese came to take charge of the bishopric in 1915, he found a house ready to serve as the episcopal residence, which the Catholics had rented and furnished and then handed over to the head of the Funchal church. This house stands in Rua dos Netos, on the corner with Rua dos Ferreiros (‘blacksmiths’), on the right-hand side as one goes up the latter street. The diocesan prelate’s residence did not remain there long, for, through the acquisition by grant and inheritance of an excellent dwelling house in the Largo do Ribeiro Real (‘royal’), this house was definitively made the bishop's palace. The prelate lives there at present, and the ecclesiastical offices are housed in the outbuildings of the property.

The use to which the former bishop's palace was to be put was regulated by the decrees of 5 July and 6 August 1913 and of 9 March and 24 August 1922.