Praça do Peixe (fish market)
Original title: Praça do Peixe
History of Funchal's fish market, the Praça do Peixe or Praça de São Pedro, from a small market built by the Câmara in 1817 to the building opened in 1840, later demolished for the Avenida do Mar.
Before the Praça de São Pedro (‘St Peter’s Square’) was built, fish was sold in a small market that the Council had built in 1817 for the modest sum of 159,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis). This market stood on the inner side of the city’s curtain wall (cortina, the defensive wall of the city), to the north of the present one. The land it occupied had belonged to Diogo Berenguer, who ceded it to the Council in exchange for the site of a shop owned by the municipality (concelho).
The works for the present Praça do Peixe (‘fish market’), or Praça de São Pedro, were put out to tender on 8 February 1839 and the contract was awarded on the 22nd of the same month and year. Certain alterations to these works were contracted out on 17 August 1839, and the market was formally opened on 29 June 1840 (1921).
To build the Praça de São Pedro, part of the city’s curtain wall was demolished with the permission of the commander of the 9th Military Division (Divisão Militar, a territorial army command). The municipal butcher’s stalls and the municipal slaughterhouse, attached to the market, were not built until 1851.
It may be supposed that the place used for selling fish before 1817, which, according to the minutes of the session of 13 March of that year, was ‘most indecent and filthy’, lay close to the present São Pedro market.
The first bridge over the Ribeira de Santa Luzia (‘St Lucy’), near the Praça do Peixe, was ordered to be built by the Council on 26 August 1836. The bridge that stands there now was built in 1890.
Vicente de Paula Teixeira was the technician the Council entrusted with drawing up the plans for the works of the present Praça de São Pedro, and Vitorino Teixeira prepared the estimate for those works (1921).
Because of the construction of the ‘Avenida do Mar’ (‘seafront avenue’), this ‘Praça’ had to be demolished, and a new market was built, which we have already described on p. 361 of vol. II of this Elucidário.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 06-
After a council session on 13 March described the old fish-selling site as filthy, the Funchal Câmara built a small fish market for 159,000 réis.
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The Câmara ordered the first bridge over the Ribeira de Santa Luzia near the fish market.
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The works for the Praça de São Pedro (fish market) were put out to tender on 8 February 1839, contracted on 22 February, and alterations contracted on 17 August.
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The Praça de São Pedro fish market in Funchal was formally opened.
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The municipal butchers' stalls and slaughterhouse were built beside the fish market in Funchal.
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The present bridge over the Ribeira de Santa Luzia in Funchal was built.
Place
Places mentioned · 04- Praça do Peixe · Subject
Funchal
The Praça do Peixe, or Praça de São Pedro, was Funchal's fish market. It began as a small market built by the Câmara in 1817 and was replaced by a building opened in 1840, which was later demolished for the Avenida do Mar.
- Avenida do Mar
Funchal. Its construction required the demolition of the fish market.
The Avenida do Mar is a seafront avenue in Funchal, inaugurated in 1939. Its construction removed most of the Praça da Rainha and required the demolition of the fish market, and its extension required new markets.
- Praça de São Pedro
Funchal. The fish market building that is the subject of the entry.
Praça de São Pedro in Funchal was the site of the former fish market (Praça do Peixe), later replaced by the Mercado União. The Elucidário records the 1851 slaughterhouse built next to it, a Fiscal Guard post there, and that it was the probable site of the Rua do Peixe gate.
- Ribeira de Santa Luzia
Funchal. Stream near the fish market, bridged in 1836 and again in 1890.
The Ribeira de Santa Luzia is one of the three streams crossing Funchal, named after a chapel of Santa Luzia on its left bank. Its banks were probably the first land irrigated by levadas and had four sugar mills in the late 17th century. It feeds the Santa Luzia, Moinhos and D. Isabel levadas, and the Jesuits' Fundoa residence stood on its right bank.
People
People mentioned · 03-
Owner of the land where the 1817 fish market was built, which he exchanged with the Câmara for the site of a municipal shop.
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Technician commissioned by the Câmara to draw up the plan for the Praça de São Pedro works.
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Prepared the cost estimate for the Praça de São Pedro works.