St Paul (chapels)

The chapel of this dedication on the Largo de São Paulo is one of the oldest on the island, and we believe it was the first to be built after that of St Catherine (see that entry). It was originally named after St Peter and St Paul (São Pedro e São Paulo). However, although the seat of the parish (freguesia) of São Pedro was established there, it was the second name that endured through the ages and is still in use today. Above the portico one can still see the traditional keys, or papal arms, bearing witness to the chapel’s patron saint, or former dedication.

Its founder was João Gonçalves Zarco, who built his second residence beside it, said to have been the first stone house constructed in Funchal, and then moved there from Santa Catarina (‘St Catherine’). See Moradias de Zargo (‘Zargo’s dwellings’).

The date 1426, which can be read above the outer gate leading into the small churchyard, evidently refers to the original building.

Over the centuries the small and modest church has undergone various repairs, and certainly nothing remains of the original building. In 1871 it was almost completely rebuilt.

Services in the chapel of St Paul were conducted by Franciscan friars until 1566, when the parish of São Pedro was created and its seat installed in this same chapel. The parish was abolished in 1579 and restored in 1586; it is not known whether the parish was installed for the second time in this chapel or in some other. In 1879 a confraternity bearing the name of the patron saint was organised there, and its statutes were approved by the highest authority of the district by a royal decree (alvará) of 13 March of that year.

It was beside this chapel that the building intended for the first hospital was erected, which had been donated for this purpose by the discoverer João Gonçalves Zargo, as already mentioned on page 366 of volume II.

There was once a chapel dedicated to St Paul in the parish (freguesia) of Porto Moniz (‘Moniz’s harbour’), of which some ruins still remain. It was founded by Father Paulo Vieira Jardim, parish priest of that parish, who died there on 15 February 1776 and was buried in the chapel he had founded. It was also known as the chapel of St Paul and the Holy Souls (São Paulo e Almas).