St Clare (church)

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The captain, says Frutuoso, resolved to make his residence (as he did) on a height that stands above Funchal, and directly opposite his lodgings he founded a church of Our Lady of the Conception as his family vault (looking, most prudently, to the end at the very beginning), which is commonly called Nossa Senhora de Cima, because it is built above the town on a hillock at the foot of a peak...

As is well known, and as the passage quoted shows, it was the discoverer of Madeira who founded the chantry (capela) of Our Lady known as Conceição de Cima, to distinguish it from Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Baixo (Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception ‘Below’) (volume II, page 451), and he intended it as the burial place of himself and his descendants. With the founding of the Convent of St Clare (volume I, page 309), adjoining the chapel of the Conceição, the church’s name gradually fell out of use and the convent’s name prevailed. Some years later it came to cover both buildings, so that the two shared a single name: the convent and church of St Clare.

Nothing of Zargo’s building survives today. The chapel underwent various alterations, and in the second half of the 17th century it was demolished when the present church was built. For Madeirans this church has great historical value, and it should command the deepest veneration from all. Within its walls lie the ashes of the discoverer of Madeira.

As patron of this church, João Gonçalves Zargo would no doubt have been buried in the chancel, beside the steps of the high altar of the old chapel. We read in an old manuscript ‘that the work was so arranged that Zarco’s grave lay in the middle of the chancel, with a stone tomb above it so tall that it makes it singularly venerable and worthy of respect. It is said that, many years later, the nuns obtained the removal of the imposing mausoleum, because it blocked their view of the altar, above all during the celebration of the divine offices.

The donataries of Funchal (see Donataries) ceased for good to reside on this island after the beginning of Philippine rule (Spanish Habsburg rule over Portugal, 1580–1640). It must therefore be supposed that the removal of the discoverer’s mausoleum, or of a considerable part of it, took place after the year 1580, for we cannot accept that the captains-donatary would have permitted such a profanation of the sarcophagus of their predecessor, the founder of the house they represented.

It is a constant tradition that the remains of the illustrious discoverer of Madeira lie in the tomb at the far end of the church, beside the lower choir (coro de baixo). The tomb has been widely reproduced in engravings in many Portuguese and foreign works. It bears an inscription in Gothic lettering, now illegible, but on the adjacent floor the following words can be read:

Tomb of Captain Gaspar Mendes de Vasconcellos, which he had made for himself and his heirs on the removal of the first gravestone that was placed here, as a descendant of the first Martim Mendes de Vasconcellos, who lies here and who came to this island to marry Elena Gonçalves da Câmara, daughter of João Gonçalves Zarco, the discoverer of this island. It was made in the year 1710.

Does the Gothic inscription refer to Martim Mendes de Vasconcelos, Zargo’s son-in-law, or to the discoverer himself, as someone has already claimed? It is our opinion that the inscription refers to the husband of Helena Gonçalves da Câmara.

And when did the translation of the remains take place? When the showy mausoleum was removed? When the church was rebuilt in the second half of the 17th century? When the body of Gaspar Mendes de Vasconcelos was laid in the grave? Or on some other occasion still? Nothing is known for certain on this matter, and there has been no lack of people who have asserted that the translation never took place, and that the discoverer’s ashes still lie beside the high altar, in the original place where they were laid. Nevertheless, it is not easy to overturn with a simple denial the unbroken tradition that holds the discoverer of Madeira to be buried in the tomb of his son-in-law Martim Mendes de Vasconcelos (see Lápides (‘Tablets’)).

In March 1919, while a floor was being laid in the chancel of this church, the gravestones covering the bones of the 2nd, 3rd and 5th donataries (donatário) of Funchal were discovered. In the centre, beside the steps of the high altar, lies a dark-coloured sepulchral slab bearing this epitaph: ‘Tomb of João Gonçalves da Câmara, second captain of this island.’ In the same chancel, on the Epistle side, another stone of the same colour was found, with the following inscription: ‘Tomb of Simão Gonçalves da Câmara....3rd captain of this island. Here lies Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, Count of Calheta (‘small cove’) and fifth captain of this island.’ We should note that on the stone bearing these last epitaphs two lines have been struck through, a circumstance for which we cannot offer any plausible explanation. No gravestone was found on the Gospel side. These tombs contain no reference whatever to the burial of the discoverer, which would be strange if his mortal remains had in fact stayed there. The third donatary, Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, died in Matosinhos, but his remains were carried to Funchal and buried in the Convent of St Clare, as the epitaph transcribed above shows. João Gonçalves da Câmara, the 4th captain-donatary (capitão-donatário), died in Funchal and was buried in the Convent of St Clare, although no reference to his burial is to be found there.

The librarian of the Funchal Council, Adolfo César de Noronha, tried to found an art museum in the outbuildings of this church, making use of various paintings and other works of art that had belonged to several convents and were scattered about. Despite the praiseworthy and diligent efforts he made, his initiative met with not the slightest success.