Prazeres (parish)

In the early days of colonisation, and long afterwards, a good many chapels were built in various localities of this island. They generally gave their names to these places, which were often important centres of population and became the origin of future parishes. This is why every parish (freguesia) in Madeira that keeps a name of a religious character takes it from a chapel that already existed and was later turned into a parish church. The same is true of the parish of Prazeres (‘joys’), whose name comes from a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Joys (Nossa Senhora dos Prazeres), built there long before the parish was created. It is to be presumed that the original chapel was known as the chapel of Prazeres, and that this name, thus simplified, became that of the new parish.

The land that makes up the greater part of the parish of Prazeres originally belonged to the parish of Estreito da Calheta (‘the narrows of Calheta’). It was detached from that parish to form, together with a few hamlets of Fajã da Ovelha (‘the ewe’s flat’), an independent parish, created by the royal decree (alvará régio) of 28 December 1676. It was only around 1684 that the new parish was established, with its seat in the chapel of Our Lady of the Joys. Its parish priests were Father Manuel Dias Pinheiro (1684–1692), Francisco Correia da Silva (1692–1693) and José Cordeiro de Andrade (1693–1700). In that year, 1700, the parish of Prazeres was abolished, or at least part of the parish services held there was suspended and transferred to the church of Estreito da Calheta, to whose parish the hamlets of Prazeres were annexed. We have not discovered the reasons behind this measure, which seems strange to us but did in fact take place. The locality did, however, have a chaplain of its own, who celebrated some acts of worship there.

Thirty-three years later, by the royal decree of 12 November 1733, the curacy (curato) of Nossa Senhora dos Prazeres was created, and it was then made dependent on the parish of Paul do Mar (‘marsh by the sea’). The only parish in this diocese that we know to have been abolished and soon afterwards restored as a parish was that of São Pedro (‘St Peter’), in this city. But of an autonomous parish that was suppressed and afterwards reduced to the subordinate rank of a curacy, we know only of Prazeres.

As happened with Jardim do Mar, Achadas da Cruz and others, the curacy of Prazeres gradually freed itself from its dependence on its mother church (igreja matriz) and went on to become an autonomous parish, in a year we cannot determine. This is the place to say that the last parishes in this diocese to bear the name of curacies, such as those of Curral das Freiras (‘nuns’ fold’), Achadas da Cruz, Prazeres, etc., were in recent times genuinely autonomous parishes, independent of the parishes from which they had been separated, although they kept the traditional name of curacies. Shortly before 1880 the priests who performed parochial duties in Prazeres began to sign the relevant official documents as parish priests, and the first collated vicar, in 1881, was Father João António Marcial. The old, original chapel stood in the locality of Estacada (‘stockade’), beside the road. No trace of it remains, as it was demolished when the present parish church was built. In 1745 the works on the new church were put out for award by public auction (arrematação) for 4,100,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis), but construction began only some years later: the foundation stone was laid and blessed on 9 September 1751, and the licence decree stated that the old church was ‘small and unfit to serve’. In 1922 the building was substantially altered: the main body was enlarged and a tower and two sacristies were added, giving it more ample proportions. It was in this church, in December 1827, that a sacrilege was committed with the theft of the sacred vessel containing the Holy Eucharist. It caused a great sensation throughout the island, and for that reason many acts of reparation were held in all the churches of the diocese.

The parish of Prazeres is one of the least known on this island, but it is undoubtedly one of the most picturesque. Father Fernando Augusto de Pontes describes this parish as follows: ‘In the distance the undulating mountains stand out against the blue of the sky, and the winding tracks and paths cut across the heights in different directions. Close at hand, the vegetation is a carpet unrolled everywhere. The roads are lined with box and laurel, and the air is very pure. One cannot pass over in silence the ravishing beauty to be enjoyed from the brow of a mountain above the sea – the Assomadouro. Down below, on the left, lies a settlement whose houses are almost hidden beneath the vegetation that smothers them: it is Jardim do Mar. On the right there is another parish – it is Paul do Mar. And how lovely are the houses clustered together at the water’s edge in Paul!’

Main localities: Lombo do Coelho, Lombo da Velha, Estacada, Picos, Lombo da Rocha, Carreira, Referta and Jardim Pelado.

The parish has the levadas (irrigation channels) of Ribeiro de Inês, Ribeira do Batel and Ribeira da Lombada, and it is crossed and irrigated by the Levada do Rabaçal. It has a state boys’ school. Its population is 1251. (1921)