Porto da Cruz (parish)

Travelling from the south of this island towards the north and rounding the Ponta de São Lourenço, we come upon the first of the parishes (freguesia) that make up that rugged coast. This is Porto da Cruz (‘harbour of the cross’). It takes its name from the cross that the first explorers of this village (lugar, settlement rank below a town) raised at the small cove that serves it as a landing place.

The first lands brought under cultivation on the north coast were those of Porto da Cruz and Faial. It may be supposed that some of the closest descendants of the first donatary, Tristão Vaz Teixeira, held lands by sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation) in this parish and devoted themselves to farming here. The early settlers included António de Abreu, Fernão Nunes, Simão Teixeira, Baltasar da Mata, Francisco Velosa, João Dias, António Teixeira de Mendonça and António Leal, almost all of noble descent.

The royal decree (alvará régio) of 26 September 1577 empowered the diocesan prelate, Dom Jerónimo Barreto, to erect this new parish, and the same instrument granted the parish priest a stipend (côngrua) of 20,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) a year. The royal decree of 15 November 1591 then fixed this salary at 19,000 réis in cash, one and a half pipas (wine cask and measure, c. 400–500 litres) of wine and one and a half moios (dry measure of grain, 60 alqueires) of wheat.

It is probable that before the parish was created, as happened in almost all the parishes of this island, there was some chapel with its own chaplain who performed the ecclesiastical duties there. This may well have taken place in the very chapel of Our Lady of Pity (Nossa Senhora da Piedade), where the seat of the parish was established, perhaps under the canonical authority of the parish priest of Faial. We have already given a brief account of this chapel on page 465 of volume II.

It seems that the original patron of the parish was Nossa Senhora da Piedade, the dedication of the small church that first served as the parish church. According to the parish archive, the mystery of the True Cross (Vera Cruz) was later given to it as its patron saint. In the deed of grant of the land for the new church, the church is called Nossa Senhora da Glória, and finally, once the new church had been built, it was consecrated to Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe, a patron saint that endured and which it still keeps today.

The seat of the parish remained in the chapel of Piedade (‘pity’) for only a few years. In 1580 Dona Guiomar Lomelino, who lived in this parish (freguesia), donated to the parish priest Nicolau de Abreu the land needed to build the new church, presbytery and adjoining glebe (passal). We do not know when the building of the church was finished or when services began to be held in it. It underwent various alterations over time, and around 1637 and 1688 major repairs were carried out. The royal decree (alvará) of 30 October 1748 authorised the payment of 2,450,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) for the works on a new church, which turned out to be too small for the population of the parish. The chapel of the Santíssimo Sacramento (Most Holy Sacrament) was built in 1763 on the orders of Manuel Caldeira da Silva, as administrator of the entailed estate (vínculo) founded by Marcelino de Moura and in fulfilment of a vow the latter had made; this chapel belonged to the same entailed estate. Around 1820 the building of a new parish church was planned, estimated at twenty-six contos (one million réis) de réis, but the attempt never went beyond a mere project.

A papal brief of 21 April 1795 grants a plenary indulgence to those who visit this church, and another brief, of 15 August 1781, grants the favour of a special privilege to the altar of the Lord Jesus (Senhor Jesus) on every Monday.

The first vicar was Father Nicolau de Oliveira, who was in charge of this parish for more than forty years. He was followed by Fathers Rui Gomes de Ornelas, Manuel Fernandes Braga, Francisco Fernandes, Pedro Ferreira, Inácio Álvaro de Carvalho, Cristóvão Moniz de Meneses, etc.

In some interesting articles on this parish published in the Correio da Madeira (‘Madeira Courier’), we find the following lines on the creation of the curacy (curato): ‘As parish activity kept growing after 1700, at the request of Father Caetano Alberto de Araújo and by royal decree of Maria I dated 31 July 1797, the curacy of this parish was created, with the obligation of residence near the chapel of São João Nepomuceno (St John of Nepomuk), at Lombo dos Leais (‘the Leals’ ridge’), the curate receiving an annual stipend (côngrua) of one and a half moios of wheat and one and a half pipas of wine. This curacy was the cause of disputes between the vicar and the owners of the chapel, which was placed under interdict for some time for that reason’.

Volume I of the Navy and Overseas Archive (Arquivo da Marinha e Ultramar) cites several documents showing that in 1818 various parishioners of this parish, and especially the inhabitants of the locality of Folhadal (‘folhado grove’), asked the government in Lisbon to create a curacy based at the chapel of São João Nepomuceno or, perhaps rather, to move the seat to that chapel, which would then become the parish church. Bishop Dom Joaquim de Meneses e Ataíde reported unfavourably on the petition.

Several entails (instituições vinculares) had their seat in this locality, and we give a brief account of some of them. The entailed house (casa vinculada) of the Baptistas was founded at the end of the 15th century by the Genoese Micer Baptista; its last representative was João Bettencourt Baptista, who died a few years ago (1921). The entailed estate (morgadio) of Referta (‘refuge’) was established by Manuel Telo Moniz de Meneses, who died in 1713; its last administrator was Manuel Raimundo Telo Moniz Torresão, and its representative today is his granddaughter Dona Cristina de Campos Soares (1921). There was also the entail founded by Father Cristóvão Moniz de Meneses, whose last representative was the holder of the entail (morgado) António Caetano de Aragão; and the entailed estates founded by Captain Brás Moniz Telo de Meneses and by Captain Inácio de Carvalho Favila.

The old and distinguished Leal family lived in this parish (freguesia). It formed one of the wealthiest houses in the north of the island, and its representative today is Dr Alfredo de Freitas Leal (1921). A member of this family was Commander Valentim de Freitas Leal, who among other offices held that of civil governor of this district, and who declined the title of Viscount of Porto da Cruz, a title that one of his great-grandsons has used for some years. He was born in 1790 and died in 1879.

Commander Valentim’s son was Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) João Baptista de Freitas Leal, whom we have already discussed in this volume. The first of this distinguished lineage recorded as having settled in this parish was António Leal, who died in 1582. His descendant in the fifth generation, João José Nepomuceno de Freitas Leal, founded the chapel of Lombo dos Leais.

A distinguished son of Porto da Cruz was Father Dr Caetano Alberto Soares, to whom we shall devote a separate article at the appropriate place in this work.

The main localities are Casas Próximas, Serrado, Fajã e Palmeira, Ribeira Tem-te-não-caias, Lombo dos Leais, Cruz da Guarda, Maiata, Larano, Achada, Achadinha, Referta, Massapês and Terra do Batista. From Portela (‘mountain pass’) and from Lombo dos Leais there are vast and striking views over the country between this parish and the parish of Faial. Overlooking the sea, at a height of nearly 600 metres, rises the well-known cliff of Penha de Águia, from whose heights broad and beautiful horizons also open out.

This parish is the seat of a medical district, and it has two schools, one for each sex, and a telegraph office created by the decree of 17 August 1888. According to the last published census it has 4,284 inhabitants (1921).

Porto da Cruz belonged to the captaincy of Machico from its creation, and in 1835 it became part of the municipality (concelho) of Santana (‘St Anne’). It was separated from that municipality by the decree of 19 October 1852 and annexed to the municipality of Machico, to which it still belongs.