São Martinho (parish)

In the early days of colonisation, before this parish (freguesia) was created, the lands that make it up today belonged to the parish of Funchal Cathedral (Sé). They later became part of the parish of São Pedro (‘St Peter’), from which they were separated in 1579.

As we have already pointed out, the lands surrounding the first settlement that grew up in Funchal were immediately brought under cultivation. A number of “settled farmsteads” (fazendas povoadas) were organised, each with its own private chantry (capela), and these gave rise to the new parishes that followed.

So it was in São Martinho (‘St Martin’). There was an estate and a chantry of that name there, belonging to Afonso Anes, known as the Hortelão (the Gardener), according to the annotator of the Saudades. It was here that the seat of the parish was established, created by the royal decree (alvará régio) of 3 March 1579.

By the same decree the parish priest was assigned an annual stipend (côngrua) of 11,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) in cash, half a moio (dry measure of grain, 60 alqueires) of wheat and a quarter of wine. The decree of 16 July 1581 raised this to 16,000 réis in cash, one moio of wheat and half a pipa (wine cask and measure, c. 400–500 litres) of wine. Some years later, the decree of 30 January 1589 added a further half moio of wheat and a quarter of wine to this salary.

Despite the growth in population, no curacy (curato) was created in this parish. Some years ago the prelate Dom Manuel Agostinho Barreto appointed a curate to this parish on a provisional basis, dividing the stipend of one of the two parish priests of the Sé among the assistant priests of São Gonçalo, the Cathedral (Sé Catedral) and São Martinho. These posts were created on an interim basis, but in this parish they have taken on a permanent character, in view of its population and activity (1921).

Nothing is known of the year in which the chapel of São Martinho was built, nor of the spot where it stood, though it is conjectured that it lay near the old parish church. Because the chapel was small, a parish church was built in the first or second quarter of the 17th century. Around 1735, however, this church was almost entirely rebuilt; it is the older of the two present parish churches.

The ever-growing population made the church too small for the services and activity of the parish, so an attempt was made to build a new church that would fully meet the needs of the faithful. The central government granted a fairly substantial sum for the new building, and the parishioners also gave generous donations, thanks mainly to the efforts and endeavours of the parish priest of the time, Father Manuel Pinto Correia. The foundation stone was laid and blessed with full solemnity on 8 July 1883. Work proceeded slowly, however, and for lack of funds it had to be halted within a short time.

Some thirty years later, building work resumed. On 2 August 1907 the benefactor José de Abreu, a parishioner, died in this parish, having left almost all of his fortune – a considerable one for the time – to the continuation of the work on the church. That sum could not cover all the heavy expenses still to be met, but the parish priest Teodoro João Henriques boldly took the initiative of pressing on with the work, trusting that the generosity of the parishioners would not allow the building to remain unfinished. And, happily, he was not mistaken. Around 1909 or 1910 the work, interrupted for more than twenty years, was vigorously resumed, and on 24 June 1918 the new church was consecrated with great splendour. It was opened for worship at once, while the decoration of the altars and side chapels and the final completion of other work continued.

This parish contains the chapels of Nossa Senhora da Vitória, Nossa Senhora da Ajuda, Nossa Senhora do Amparo, Nossa Senhora do Pilar, Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, Nossa Senhora das Virtudes and Santana. There were once also chapels of Nossa Senhora da Fé and Nossa Senhora de Jesus, which have been demolished. We give an account of some of these and others elsewhere in this work. In the article devoted to the chapel of Santo Amaro, we pointed out the error of the annotator of the Saudades, who placed in this parish the chapel of Santo Amaro and the castellated manor house of Garcia Homem de Sousa, both of which lie in the parish of Santo António.

The principal localities of this parish are: Pilar, Pico do Funcho, Lombada, Vitória, Quebradas, Areeiro, Ajuda, Piornais, Ribeiro Seco, Casa Branca, Nazaré, Amparo, Várzea da Igreja, Caminho Novo, Praia, Poço Borral, Pico de São Martinho and Virtudes.

The parish is bounded in part to the south by the so-called Praia Formosa (volume III, page 138) and to the west by the Ribeira dos Socorridos, which separates it from the parish of Câmara de Lobos (‘seals’ den’). Near the Praia Formosa lies the Fojo (‘pit’), which we have already mentioned on page 230 of volume I of this work.

In this parish are the rifle range (Carreira de Tiro), of which we have already given an account (volume I, page 251), ‘Reid’s, Palace Hotel’ and its annexes, and the important fish cannery of Júdice Fialho, which we have also dealt with (volume II, page 161).

Of the so-called Estrada Monumental (‘monumental road’), which runs through a large part of this parish, and of the Ponte do Ribeiro Seco (‘dry brook bridge’), where that road begins, we have already said what is necessary in volume I of this work, on page 416. On this subject the pamphlet Collecção de documentos relativos á construção da Ponte do Ribeiro Secco, published in 1848, may be consulted.

The land of this parish is watered by several levadas (irrigation channels), foremost among them the Levada dos Piornais (‘broom thickets’), one of the most important private levadas on the island, which we have already mentioned on page 256 of volume II.

The Bishop of Ceuta and Tangier, Dom Martinho de Aguiar, was born in São Martinho (volume I, page 28). The parish has 6,556 inhabitants (1921).