Ribeira Brava (parish)

On the origin of the name of this parish (freguesia), the lineage and services of its inhabitants and the fertility of its lands, let us hear the celebrated historian of the islands, albeit with his customary hyperbole: ‘…and they spent many days on the way until, three léguas further on, they reached a furious stream, on whose beach the captain was waiting. He had gone ashore and had laid out a settlement there, which he named Ribeira Brava (‘wild river’) after the stream that ran through this place. The settlement later founded here became so pleasant and noble, one of the best on the island, that besides having many fruits and provisions in abundance, it is and always was so generous with the inhabitants who live in it that, when it suited the captains of Funchal to go later to the relief of the strongholds of Africa with men, from this one place alone they drew such noble knights and distinguished people, who went at their own expense to serve the King, and who won such renown, as will be seen later in the course of this history; besides other noble people, retainers of the captains, who always had very knightly men of noble birth from here. This place is not a town, not because it lacks many inhabitants and a good site, nor because it is the least on the island – on the contrary, it is the best situated and most magnificent of all – but because it lies within the termo (municipal jurisdictional district, a subdivision of the comarca) of the City of Funchal, and is a pleasant quinta (country estate), from which the inhabitants of the city obtain, and where they are supplied with, the best wheat, fruit, game and meat, and in greater abundance than in the whole island; and it may rightly be called the granary of Funchal, as the Island of Sicily is called the granary of Italy.’ Elsewhere the author of the Saudades also says: ‘A légua west of Campanário (‘bell tower’) lies Ribeira Brava, which bears this name to the full: it is a village of about three hundred households (fogos, literally ‘hearths’), with a church of St Benedict and a good landing place of fine shingle. Its houses stand up along the floor of the stream, and it has much sugar cane, two sugar mills and very rich orchards with many apples and pears, walnuts and plenty of chestnuts, so that it is the pleasantest village on the island. For this reason, and because it deserves it, having a good landing place and being very lush, the inhabitants have many times tried to have it made a town. It also has many vineyards, although the wine is not as good as that of Funchal. The stream is so furious when it floods that it sometimes carries away many houses and does great damage, because it comes down from great mountains and high ranges; and because it is like this, they came to call it brava [wild].’

It is one of the oldest parishes (freguesia) in Madeira, its creation being dated by Frutuoso’s annotator to the year 1440. It was perhaps not yet a parish in the strict sense that the term is meant to convey, but it already formed a sizeable centre of population, with its small church and its own chaplain, who no doubt enjoyed some of the privileges and rights granted to vicars in solidum. The same happened with other parishes in the earliest days of colonisation.

The curacy (curato) of this parish was created by the royal decree of 30 August 1594, and the royal decree of 2 January 1606 set its annual salary at 20,000 réis in cash.

Because of its importance and the growth of its population, this parish became the seat of a collegiate church (vol. 1, p. 283), which was created around 1540 with four beneficiaries, each paid 8,000 réis a year. The royal decrees of 16 May 1549, 18 June 1572, 8 May 1591 and 13 March 1745 successively increased this salary, which the last of these instruments set at 6,000 réis in cash, two moios of wheat and one pipa of wine a year. The number of beneficiaries was reduced to three by the royal decree of 5 September 1577.

Besides these clergy, the collegiate church had the office of treasurer, who under the royal decree of 10 February 1666 received an annual salary of 10,000 réis in cash, forty alqueires of wheat and a quarter of wine, with the obligation ‘to provide wax, wine and hosts for the sacristy’. It also had the offices of preacher, organist and sacristan.

We do not know the date of foundation of the old chapel of St Benedict (São Bento), which was the seat of the parish and of the collegiate church, though its existence must go back to the second quarter of the 15th century. This chapel underwent various alterations and repairs until the present parish church was built, which is unquestionably one of the oldest rural churches in this diocese. It has undergone various additions and modifications, but its original construction cannot be later than the second half of the 16th century.

This parish had a convent of Franciscan friars, called according to some the Convent of Nossa Senhora da Porciúncula (Our Lady of the Angels of the Portiuncula) and according to others that of São Francisco, of which we have already given a brief account (volume I, page 308).

This parish once had the chapels of Our Lady of the Presentation (Nossa Senhora da Apresentação), Our Lady of the Good Death (Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte), St Anthony of Padua and the Almas (Holy Souls in Purgatory). The chapel of São José (St Joseph) lies in ruins, while those of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and St John the Baptist are still used for worship. We give a brief account of all of them elsewhere in this work.

Among the natives of this parish were the celebrated grammarian and humanist Father Manuel Álvares (volume I, page 59), José Anselmo Correia Henriques (volume I, page 317), José Ferreira Pestana (volume II, page 23), Belchior de Teive and the Viscount of Ribeira Brava. Also born in Ribeira Brava, says Gaspar Frutuoso, were ‘the Coelhos, canons of the Cathedral of Funchal, outstanding men with rich voices. One of them was called Gaspar Coelho; he was choirmaster of the Cathedral for many years; and Francisco Coelho, his younger brother, while a canon, was also choirmaster of the King’s chapel at Court’.

Many noble persons lived in this parish, holding a great deal of land here by sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation) and founding several entails. Prominent among them were the Teive family (see that entry); Henrique Bettencourt, whose widow Dona Isabel Fernandes Távora founded the entailed house (casa vinculada) of Apresentação (‘Presentation’); Lopo Vaz de Sequeira; António Vilela; and others besides.

Among the events in this parish that deserve special mention are the killings that took place there on 29 June 1884, to which we have already referred on page 403 of volume II of this work.

This locality owes much to the Viscount of Ribeira Brava. It was he who secured its elevation to the seat of the municipality (concelho) and of a school district, and who endowed it with important material improvements, transforming the locality (sítio) of Lugar (‘place’) into a pleasant settlement well worth a visit. The opening and widening of streets and roads, the building of a small theatre, the rebuilding of the small fort of São Bento and other works carried out there place the people of Ribeira Brava under a duty to be grateful to his memory and to perpetuate it in a worthy manner through the times to come.

On 10 February 1902 the virtuous priest Francisco Manuel de Sousa died in this parish. As parish priest and public-spirited citizen, he rendered notable services to this locality.

According to the 1911 census the parish has 5,339 inhabitants, and its principal localities are: Lugar, Achada, Amoreira, Barreiros e Carreira, Caminho Chão, Cova, Cruz da Caldeira, Cruz e Pico da Banda de Além, Eira do Mourão, Espigão, Fajã dos Bichos, Fajã do Cerejo, Fajã da Ortiga, Fajã da Ribeira, Fonte Cruzada, Fonte do Pinheiro, Fontes, Lombo Cesteiro, Meia Légua, Moinhos, Pedra Mole, Pomar da Rocha, Ribeira Funda, São João, Terça, Til and Vale.

Every year on 29 June the village of Ribeira Brava is visited by a very great number of people from all parts of the island, drawn by the arraial (open-air popular festival at a church feast) held there. The procession, with its little boat and the sword dance, was the chief attraction of the festivities in that place, but some time ago the religious cortège was at last purged of the dance, which had been much enjoyed by the pilgrims. We do not know when the little boat and the sword dance first appeared in the procession of St Peter, but it is likely that both date from early times.

The little boat, decked with flowers and carrying some fishing gear as a symbol of that industry, appears in the cortège because St Peter, whose image also features in it, was a fisherman. The sword dance, on the other hand, was apparently the last vestige of the many folk dances (folias) that once appeared in certain processions, and particularly in that of Corpus Christi (see Processions).

The seven men who took part in the dance wore white breeches and red waistcoats, and on their heads green caps shaped like a mitre, trimmed with plumes and long ribbons. Each held a sword by the hilt in one hand and, with the other, the point of the sword held by the man next to him. To the sound of a tambourine they performed various measured movements, passing now and then beneath the swords.

In the little boat, which still appears at the head of the procession, ride a few children dressed as fishermen, together with various offerings of local produce. The celebrated sword dance, which we had occasion to see several times more than twenty years ago, also went before the religious cortège. The men taking part in it never ceased their gestures and twirling while the cortège made its way through the streets of the village, between dense rows of people who had come from every part of the island.