St Bartholomew (church)
Original title: São Bartolomeu (Igreja de)
The former church of São Bartolomeu in early Funchal, founded by Gonçalo Eanes de Velosa with an attached hospice for poor clergy, which housed the Jesuits from 1566 and was demolished in the 19th century.
Abroad
The old church of St Bartholomew (São Bartolomeu) was built in the Rua Direita (‘straight street’) of the early settlement of Funchal, a street that then ran along the left bank of the Ribeira de Santa Luzia (‘St Lucy’) as far as the vicinity of the present Ponte do Torreão (‘turret’). It was founded by Gonçalo Eanes de Velosa, and attached to it was a hospital or hospice (albergaria) intended to shelter poor and infirm clergy. In it he founded an entail with the obligation of having a Mass said there every Friday of the year for the soul of Infante Ferdinand. He was buried in this church, and according to what we have read in an old nobiliary, the following epitaph was carved on his tombstone: ‘Here lies Gonçalo Annes de Veloza, squire of Infante Ferdinand, whom God keeps, a native of Celorico, builder of this church of São Bartholomeu and hospital, who died in the era of 1497, on 1 August.’ The annotator of the ‘Island History’ (Historia Insulana) says that this hospice was never occupied by poor clergy, as its founder had stipulated, and that it often served as lodging for missionaries who stopped in Funchal on their way to India.
It was in this hospice that the Jesuits settled in 1566, and they remained there until the church and college of São João Evangelista (St John the Evangelist) were built.
The church of St Bartholomew, long since deconsecrated, was demolished in the second quarter of the 19th century.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 03Place
Places mentioned · 08- Church of St Bartholomew · Subject
Funchal
The Igreja de São Bartolomeu was a former church on Rua Direita in early Funchal, founded by Gonçalo Eanes de Velosa with an attached hospice for poor clergy. It housed the Jesuits from 1566, as their second temporary home, and was demolished in the 19th century.
- Celorico
Portugal. Birthplace of the founder.
Celorico is a place on the Portuguese mainland. It was the birthplace of Gonçalo Anes, founder of the church of São Bartolomeu, and of the Velosa brothers.
- Church and college of St John the Evangelist
Funchal. Jesuit church and college to which the Jesuits moved from São Bartolomeu.
Jesuit church and college to which the Jesuits moved from São Bartolomeu.
- Funchal
Town where the church was built.
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.
- India
Destination of missionaries lodged in the hospice.
India is recorded as the place where several Madeirans served, including Lopo de Abreu, Pedro da Silva and the viceroy João Saldanha da Gama. The fame of Madeiran levada builders reached it. It is the native region of plants grown on Madeira, among them the mango, Hedychium gardnerianum, balsam and most bamboos.
- Ponte do Torreão
Funchal. Bridge near which Rua Direita ended.
The Ponte do Torreão is a bridge in Funchal that replaced an earlier wooden bridge and gives the Torreão entry its name. Rua dos Ferreiros ends at it, and it is repeatedly used as the reference point for the former extent of Rua Direita.
- Ribeira de Santa Luzia
Funchal. Stream along whose left bank Rua Direita ran.
The Ribeira de Santa Luzia is one of the three streams crossing Funchal, named after a chapel of Santa Luzia on its left bank. Its banks were probably the first land irrigated by levadas and had four sugar mills in the late 17th century. It feeds the Santa Luzia, Moinhos and D. Isabel levadas, and the Jesuits' Fundoa residence stood on its right bank.
- Rua Direita
Funchal. Street of early Funchal on which the church stood.
An early Funchal street existing in 1508, on which the church of São Bartolomeu, an old customs house and the seminary's first house stood. D. Jerónimo Barreto lived there and Zenobio Acciaioly had a sugar mill there. It was hit by a shell in the 1916 bombardment.
People
People mentioned · 02- Gonçalo Anes de Velosad. 1497
Squire of Infante D. Fernando, born in Celorico, who founded the church and hospice of São Bartolomeu in Funchal and was buried there.
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Portuguese prince for whose soul Velosa endowed a weekly Friday mass in São Bartolomeu.