Santa Cruz (town and municipality)

The illustrious annotator of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) is of the opinion that Machico was raised to the status of town (vila) at the same time as Funchal, that is, around 1452, although the royal diplomas granting these privileges and prerogatives to the two settlements are not to be found in the archives of their respective captaincies. Santa Cruz (‘Holy Cross’), set within the captaincy of Machico, grew in importance soon after the discovery of Madeira. The increase in its population, together with its commercial and agricultural development, allowed it to rival its neighbour, so much so that its inhabitants asked for it to be granted the privileges of a town. Manuel I granted this by royal letter (carta régia) of 20 June 1515.

This letter, which is transcribed in full in the Saudades, on pages 505 ff., was presented at the seat of the captaincy of Machico on 17 July 1515 so that it could be put into immediate effect. Some councillors (vereadores) lodged objections to the creation of the new town, but these objections came to nothing, lacking both legal grounds and the support of the captain-donatary Tristão Vaz Teixeira. The rivalry between the two towns seems to date from this period; it has persisted through the centuries and even at present has not entirely faded.

When a new charter (foral) was granted to the city of Funchal in August 1515, the towns of Machico and Santa Cruz, forgetting their old rivalry for a moment, promptly asked jointly for a charter as well. It was granted to them, with various privileges and exemptions, by royal letter of 15 December 1515.

The town of Santa Cruz did not, however, free itself entirely from the tutelage of the captaincy of Machico, for its donataries continued to intervene in many matters of military and criminal jurisdiction. This tutelage came to a complete end only with the death of the last donatary of Machico. The very royal letter creating the town says: ‘. . . . e ho capitam da dita billa de Machiquo teraa na dita billa de Santa Cruz e seu termo asy ha cadeia e todallas outras liberdades que ateeaqui teue...’ (‘and the captain of the said town of Machico shall have in the said town of Santa Cruz and its termo [municipal jurisdictional district, a subdivision of the comarca] the gaol and all the other liberties that he has had hitherto’)

Especially from a commercial and industrial point of view, the town surpassed Machico in importance, and this led at once to the creation of a customs house, which we have already discussed at some length on page 43 of volume I of this work. From the many references we have found to this revenue house, from the number and standing of its officials, and from the records of various decrees entered in the books of the former Crown Revenue Office (Provedoria) of Funchal, we see that the customs house of the town of Santa Cruz was more important and busier than that of Machico, even though the latter stood at the seat of the captaincy.

The town had a charitable institution of some importance, its Misericórdia (Holy House of Mercy, a lay charitable brotherhood), of which an account has already been given in the article Misericórdias (volume II, page 376).

The municipality (concelho) of Santa Cruz is at present made up of the parishes (freguesia) of Santa Cruz, Água de Pena (part), Santo da Serra (part), Gaula, Camacha and Caniço. The decree of 19 October 1852, which detached the parish of Porto da Cruz (‘harbour of the cross’) from the municipality of Santana (‘St Anne’) and incorporated it into that of Machico, also separated some localities from the latter municipality and joined them to the municipality of Santa Cruz. This provoked vigorous protests from the Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal) of Machico and from various official bodies and private individuals of the same municipality. After a series of incidents that seemed endless, the secretary-general of the district, António Lopes Barbosa de Albuquerque, acting as civil governor, convened a meeting at the Casa dos Romeiros (‘pilgrims’ house’) in the parish of Santo da Serra (‘the saint of the uplands’) on 11 September 1862. It brought together representatives of the Municipal Councils of Machico and Santa Cruz, the administrators of the municipalities, various public officials and other persons of standing. There a new municipal and parish division – the present one – was definitively agreed, and so the complaints and protests raised on both sides came to an end.

On more than one occasion the inhabitants of the parishes of Caniço and Camacha have petitioned the central government to have these parishes annexed to the municipality of Funchal, but the request was never granted. In March 1928 the building that housed the law courts and other municipal public offices caught fire. A large new building was then built to serve as the new town hall (Paços do Concelho) and also to accommodate the offices that had been housed in the burnt building; it was inaugurated at the beginning of 1933.