São Roque (parish)

The lands that now make up this suburban parish (freguesia) of Funchal originally formed part of the parish of the Sé, Funchal Cathedral (Sé), and later belonged to the parish of São Pedro (‘St Peter’). The same happened with the parish of São Martinho (‘St Martin’), as has already been said elsewhere in this volume. The two parishes were separated from São Pedro in the same year, and the instrument that created them bears the same date.

The royal decree (alvará régio) of Cardinal Henry the Navigator, dated 3 March 1579, empowered the diocesan prelate Dom Jerónimo Barreto to create the parish of São Roque (‘St Roch’), and set the parish priest’s annual stipend (côngrua) at 14,000 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 royal decree of 16 January 1589 raised this salary to 19,000 réis in cash, half a moio of wheat and a quarter of wine, to which the decree of the 30th of the same month and year added a further 3,000 réis in cash and half a moio of wheat.

The parish (freguesia) took its name from the small chapel of St Roch that stood there, where the seat of the new parish was established. The chapel had been built by the inhabitants of the locality (sítio) in a year before the parish was created. Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo, basing himself on the order of the Council of the Treasury (Conselho da Fazenda) of 19 May 1704, which directed that the building of the new church and sacristy be put out to award by public auction (arrematação) for the sum of 795,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis), appears to conclude that the present church was built in that year. This construction, or rather enlargement, was carried out on the chapel that stood in the locality still known today as Igreja Paroquial (‘parish church’), which we believe to be the site of the original chapel of St Roch. The work seems to have been none too sound, for around 1790 the church collapsed and could no longer be used for worship. Religious services were then held in a small chapel whose dedication we do not know.

Work on the present church began at the start of the 19th century, but building was slow, and the works were declared complete only around the middle of that century. In the meantime, it had served as the parish church since the 1820s.

The parish has the chapels of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Nossa Senhora da Alegria (Our Lady of Joy), Our Lady of the Rosary and St Anne; that of Nossa Senhora da Esperança (Our Lady of Hope) disappeared long ago. We give a brief account of each elsewhere.

The principal localities of this parish are: Achada, Muro da Coelha, Conceição, Fundoa, Igreja Velha, Calhau, Igreja Nova, Alegria, Bugiaria, Lombo Segundo, Lombo de João Boieiro and Santana. It has 3,289 inhabitants (1921).