Early dwellings 1Timber houses of the first settlers
Early dwellings
Original title: Primitivas Habitações
Describes the earliest dwellings built in Madeira after its discovery, which were made of timber from the native forests, and records traditions about the first two-storey house and the first stone houses in Funchal.
1Timber houses of the first settlers
Since forest species grew in great abundance on this island at the time of its discovery, they supplied the chief raw material for building the first dwellings. The earliest dwelling houses were all built of timber taken from these dense woods, and it may be presumed that many of them used the native cedar and other species best suited to that purpose.
We have already said elsewhere that João Gonçalves Zarco had his first residence on the heights of Santa Catarina (‘St Catherine’), built perhaps from the rich and fragrant cedars that grew everywhere in dense woods. It was doubtless a more than modest and uncomfortable dwelling, built on a single storey and stripped of all architectural display. Also of wood was the small chapel of St Catherine, which the discoverer’s wife had built beside her home.
2First two-storey and stone houses
Only some years later was the first two-storey house built, and an old manuscript gives the following interesting account of it: ‘In this Campo de Duque (see vol. 1, p. 225) was built the first two-storey house there was in this town of Funchal and in the whole island. João Manuel had it made of dressed cedar wood. In those days this two-storey house was thought so novel and remarkable a thing, all the other houses being single-storey and of planking, that articles of complaint were laid before the King against the said João Manuel, accusing him of building a tower, in which it seemed he wished to fortify himself and rise up against Funchal and against the Crown. The said house still stands today (mid-18th century) and is owned by António de Carvalhal, and it is the lowest two-storey house there is in Funchal.’
As we have seen in various places, tradition records that the first stone house built on this island was the one João Gonçalves Zargo put up as his residence beside the chapel of St Paul (see vol. 2, p. 395). It is also stated that one of the oldest buildings of this kind was the one intended as a hospital, likewise built near the same chapel of St Paul.
In this article
Place
Places mentioned · 06- Early dwellings · Subject
Funchal
This entry describes the earliest dwellings built in Madeira after its discovery, which were made of timber from the native forests. It also records traditions about the first two-storey house and the first stone houses in Funchal.
- Campo do Duque
Funchal. Where the first two-storey house in Funchal was built.
The Campo do Duque was a large open ground at the centre of early Funchal belonging to the grand masters of the Order of Christ. It was granted for the building of the Sé (from 1485), the town hall and the square with its pillory, and the Terreiro da Sé was part of it. It is recorded as the site where sugar cane was first planted and where the first two-storey cedar house in Funchal was built.
- Chapel of St Catherine
Funchal. Wooden chapel built by Zargo's wife beside their home.
The Capela de Santa Catarina in Funchal was founded about 1425 by Constança Rodrigues de Almeida, wife of João Gonçalves Zarco, beside his first wooden house. It is regarded as the first church on Madeira, with the date 1425 on its portal, and had an adjoining almshouse for poor women. The Convento de São Francisco was built opposite it.
- Chapel of St Paul
Funchal. Chapel near which Zargo's stone house and an early hospital stood.
A chapel in Funchal built by Zargo near his stone house, from which the parish of São Pedro originated and which was its first seat. The first hospital was built beside it, about 1469. It gives its name to the square, lane and locality of São Paulo.
- Funchal
Town where the early houses described stood.
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.
- Santa Catarina
Funchal. Site of Zargo's first wooden dwelling.
Santa Catarina is a height in São Pedro parish, west of Funchal, where Zarco made his first settlement and wooden dwelling. Its fields were named with Caniçal as the best royal hunting grounds, and the Hospital de São Lázaro stood there.
People
People mentioned · 03- António do Carvalhald. 1598
Owner in the mid-18th century of João Manuel's old two-storey house in Funchal.
- João Gonçalves Zarcod. 1467
Discoverer and first captain-donatary of Funchal, whose first wooden home stood on the heights of Santa Catarina and later stone house near the chapel of São Paulo.
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Early resident who built the first two-storey house in Funchal, of dressed cedar, prompting complaints to the king that he was building a tower.