Funchal Cathedral (the Sé)

For the time and place in which it was built, our Cathedral (Sé Catedral) is undoubtedly a magnificent and imposing church, not only in its architectural style but also for certain works of art it contains, which have caught the attention of many distinguished visitors. For this reason it is numbered among our national monuments.

When the plan for its construction was drawn up, the creation of the diocese was expected shortly, as indeed came to pass, and with it the elevation of this church to the rank of cathedral. This readily explains the proportions it was given and the air of grandeur apparent throughout the building. For a mere parish church, and in that period, it was an excessively grand construction, one that the circumstances of the time in no way permitted or warranted.

The names of the architect who drew up the plan of this work, and of any other artist who displayed his talent there, have remained unknown to us. Nowhere in the building is there a name, a date or an initial that might give us a useful lead for any research into the craftsmen who raised that majestic church. All that can be found are small marks on the dressed stones, which perhaps served to indicate conventional details of construction, as was common in former times on buildings that took many years to complete.

The manuscript Noticia das cousas da Ilha da Madeira desde o seu segundo descobrimento pelo Zargo states that our Cathedral was built to the measurements of the church of Carmo (Carmelite church), Lisbon, which, as is well known, was commissioned by Nuno Álvares Pereira. That magnificent church, one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in Portugal, was destroyed by the earthquake of 1755. However, an old engraving, which Oliveira Martins reproduced in his work on Nuno Álvares, shows that its façade was very different from the frontage of Funchal Cathedral (the Sé) (Sé do Funchal), except for the pointed portal with its archivolts and the rose window with its ornaments embroidered in stone. As for the interior, we can say nothing about any resemblance there may have been between the two churches, since we do not know any of the old chronicles dealing with Nuno Álvares and the Carmelite convent, where a description of its church will surely be found.

The earliest date known to us relating to the construction of our Cathedral is 5 June 1485. On that day Prince Manuel, Duke of Viseu and Grand Master of the Order of Christ (Ordem de Cristo), by a letter signed at Santiago do Cacém, made a grant of land in the Campo do Duque (volume I, page 225) so that there might be built upon it ‘a church and square and churchyard and houses for the municipality (concelho)’. A letter from the same duke, dated 22 October 1488, granted half of the fines that ‘may be imposed on the island’ for ‘the making of the church which, God willing, I hope to have built in the said Funchal’.

Accounts of the year in which the work began are not entirely in agreement. Nevertheless, the most probable view to adopt is that of Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo, who states that the ‘building of the church began shortly after 1493, for in that year the Duke of Viseu, later King Manuel, ordered, by a letter registered on fol. 174 of volume I of the Archive of the Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal) of Funchal, that the revenue of the wine levy (imposição do vinho) be applied to that work.’ The annotator of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) further adds: ‘…and by 1502 it was already under way, the proceeds of that levy then being assigned to it not only in the municipality of Funchal but also in those of Ponta do Sol (‘point of the sun’) and Calheta (‘small cove’), as can be seen from the royal letter (carta régia) of the same King Manuel of that year 1502’. This letter is transcribed on page 488, not 503 as note XX states, and the following passages bear on the subject of this article: ‘Firstly, you ask us that the levy of the towns of Ponta do Sol and Calheta should always go to the works of the church of that town and of the municipality. To this we reply that it pleases us that, for as long as the works on the said church last, the levy of the aforesaid places be collected for them alone and for nothing else. Item, that the inhabitants of Ponta do Sol and Calheta should pay towards the church of that town whatever they are assessed until it is finished. To this we reply that it pleases us that each should pay what he is assessed according to his means’.

The letter cited clearly shows that the work was under way in 1502, which entirely invalidates the statement, found in many places, that construction of the Cathedral began in 1508. It is generally said that the building took a very long time, as almost always happened with buildings of that period, and to this was added the great shortage of resources of every kind in our community at the time. One can therefore easily judge that it would have been impossible to complete the building work between 1508 and 1516, or perhaps even before that latter year. What seems beyond doubt, in view of the above, is that construction began in the last decade of the 15th century, that is, shortly after 1493, as Dr Rodrigues de Azevedo states.

The main construction work on the Cathedral must have been finished by 1516, the year of its consecration, while the interior decoration and work on certain parts of the church continued slowly after that time. The distinguished annotator of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ considers the church completed in 1508 and says it was consecrated in that year by Bishop Dom João Lobo, whereas Gaspar Frutuoso gives 16 October 1516 as the day of the consecration and states that the consecrating bishop was Dom Duarte. On this point we side with the author, not the annotator, of ‘Longing for the Homeland’. In various old manuscripts we have found the statement that our Cathedral was consecrated in 1516, and Dr Rodrigues de Azevedo is perhaps the only one to assert that it was in 1508. Moreover, all the old ecclesiastical chronicles we have been able to consult state that the consecration was performed by Bishop Dom Duarte, and there is not the slightest doubt that this prelate came to the island at the behest of the first bishop, Dom Diogo Pinheiro, appointed in 1514 when the bishopric was created.

After the consecration, as we have already said, work continued on the interior decoration, which was not yet finished, and over the course of time very important works were carried out there for the complete and final conclusion of the whole building. The order of the Council of the Treasury (Conselho da Fazenda) of 30 March 1560 directed that ‘the enclosure behind the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament (Santíssimo Sacramento) be built’, and that of 28 February 1635 ordered the completion of the works on the chancel, whose paintings were only placed there in the second quarter of the 18th century. The construction of the great sacristy and of the chapter house also dates from the second quarter of that century; these were let by award by public auction (arrematação) for 3,050,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) in 1733. The present chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, which replaced the old one, began to be built around the middle of the 18th century. The altars in the side aisles were built at the beginning of the 19th century.

The description of the Cathedral that Gaspar Frutuoso wrote in 1590, which we transcribe below, is extremely picturesque: ‘… it is a much-frequented church, well shaded and cool, and it has a beautiful, very tall tower of dressed stone (cantaria), with a beautiful spire of azulejos (painted glazed tiles) which, when the rays of the Sun strike them, look like silver and gold. At the top of it hangs a clock bell so large that its hollow would hold thirty alqueires of wheat, and of so proud and great a sound that it is heard two léguas away; whenever it is rung, the people gather at any alarm of war. Further down the tower there are three windows, in which hang fifteen bells. The body of the church, which is subordinate to the tower, is large, with its churchyard, also spacious, enclosed in parts by a wall, and with ten steps leading up to it; outside it there is a square so large that bulls and horses are run in it, jousting with canes is held and other festivities take place. This church (whose dedication is to Nossa Senhora da Estrela) is laid out from East to West, with the main door facing the West and the two side doors from North to South. The altars (of which there are nine) are decorated in gold and blue, with three rich chantries (capela), where the choir lies within the arch, with its costly and finely worked seats of rich joinery; and at the crossing the Epistle and the Gospel are read.’

The Cathedral churchyard, once larger than it is today, was partly demolished in 1836, permission for the works having been granted by the civil governor on 29 December 1835.

Our Cathedral is a Gothic church with three naves, of rare and remarkable elegance, divided by tall, slender columns that spare it the heavy and gloomy appearance of many similar buildings. Above the naves rests the famous ceiling, made of native cedar wood in the Arabic style, with ivory inlays. Experts regard it as a work of rare value, and it never fails to arouse the greatest admiration among visitors. Emanuel Ribeiro says that ‘in it one admires the intricate music of Arabic interlacing, in which the geometer was able to discover a philosophy of form, harbouring strange sensations, at times of calm, serene and majestic feelings, at others steeped in a vague melancholy of mystery.

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The apse is covered by a painted vault with strong ribs, finished with carved bosses. Surrounding those on the longitudinal axis, which represent the shield of the quinas, the Cross of the Knights of the Order of Christ and the armillary sphere, there are other interpretations of the native flora. The first are three fine symbols of our past History. In one beats the heart and soul of a free people; in another a generous faith, strong in hope; and in the others the laurel of glory gleams upon the trembling, curved wing of a sail, amid rough and foaming waves. ‘In Funchal Cathedral (the Sé) there are more than fifty canvases and panels on which the artist’s brush made the iridescent ranges of colour vibrate, in some of them beautifully. From the darkened backgrounds there sometimes emerges the pure outline of figures touched with such feeling and life, animated by such purity and tenderness, that they seem merely to rest in ecstatic and mystical contemplation, wrapped in gold-embroidered mantles which fall in long classical folds over bodies wasted by long and constant fasts of sacrifice.

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Some of the panels, of the thirteen that adorn the altarpiece of the high altar in the chancel, deserve minutes of careful study.

The chancel, which Dr Álvaro de Azevedo says bears the decadent, hybrid stamp of the 17th century, is entirely out of keeping with the dominant style of the whole church, as are the sacristy and the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. The harmony of the original style was broken still further by the major repairs carried out after the earthquake of 1748, which caused considerable damage there, just as the French had already done irreparable harm in 1566. At the end of the 18th century, Canon João Paulo had several altars that were in an advanced state of ruin rebuilt at his own expense. He also had the present windows of the main façade opened; they contrast sharply with the pointed doorway and the rose window above, and robbed that frontispiece of the pure lines of the Manueline style that had been its own.

Then came the marbling on the slender columns, the coats of whitewash on the fine and distinctive frontage, and yet other artistic heresies that were perpetrated there with impunity…

The chapel of the Blessed Sacrament deserves special mention: taken as a whole, it is remarkably beautiful, with its very fine marbles and precious carving in gilded wood. Although small, it has such an air of grandeur and majesty that it makes a deep impression on the visitor.

This church holds one of the great marvels of 16th-century Portuguese goldsmiths’ work: a processional cross presented by King Manuel I to the first episcopal see founded in our overseas dominions. Although it is somewhat long, we cannot fail to transcribe here the description of it that Pinheiro Chagas gives in his Historia de Portugal: ‘This was one of the marvels of the Exhibition of Ornamental Art in Lisbon in 1882. It is of silver gilt, surrounded entirely by filigree or lacework of the most elegant workmanship. The arms of the cross each end in a closed panel, bounded by three semicircles on the upper arm and by four on the other three, and they show in relief Jesus Christ in the Garden, the Kiss of Judas, the Flagellation and the Ecce Homo. At the top, closing the upper panel from below, is the ribbon of the inscription. The figure of Christ, in high relief, rests against an elegant ornament of oak leaves, which ends at the sides and below near the hands and feet, and above reaches up to the inscription, forming there what look like two volutes. – On the back, which cannot be seen in the engraving, is the image of Christ standing, holding in his hand a globe surmounted by the cross. Four panels at the ends of the cross, corresponding to those on the front, appear on the back and represent the four Evangelists. At the lower end, before the knop, are the royal arms of Portugal, carved and held up by two angels. The whole moulding of the shaft is edged on the inside with a cord, which also surrounds the arms above and below, and the shaft rests on a hexagonal base, likewise ornamented on its outer edge with a cord. – Below everything is the foot of the cross, which serves to fit it onto a wooden staff. Between this and the base rises the most beautiful knop. From the foot spring oak branches, which seem to support the knop. The knop rises in the form of a Gothic temple in three storeys, profusely ornamented and surrounded by pinnacles, flying buttresses or buttresses, all furnished with statuettes under canopies of the most exquisite and graceful workmanship. – At the centre of each face and each storey of the knop there is a kind of door or window, all in floral decoration, each diminishing in height from the lowest to the highest. This whole body or knop is crowned on both faces, back and front, by the royal arms of Portugal held up by two angels, like the others already mentioned; on the two faces flanking the arms, armillary spheres stand out in high relief, and it can be seen that those of the back face are missing.

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This wondrous artefact is somewhat damaged by mutilations caused by time. – The cross is evidently from the beginning of the 16th century and must have been given by Dom Manuel, as the arms and spheres clearly show, when in 1514 he had the bishopric of Funchal created. – The sculpting of the figures and a certain softness in the forms of the cross lead us to believe that, if the artefact did not come from abroad and was made in the country, foreign artists must have worked on it, from the vast pleiad of those who had settled here, drawn by its riches, and who even had many disputes with the native craftsmen.

The great organ of our Cathedral, in the main choir, was commissioned by the diocesan bishop Dom Jerónimo Fernando, who headed this diocese from 1624 to 1641. For its time it was considered a very valuable instrument. Its design was drawn up by Father António Gonçalves, and it was built by a craftsman from Córdoba named João Manuel. The smaller organ, in the choir beside the chancel, was acquired in 1736; its purchase, transport and installation in its present position (1921) cost 1,100,000 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis).

For the Holy Week ceremonies, the so-called camarim (tiered throne erected for Holy Week), or throne, is set up in the chapel of the Lord Jesus; taken as a whole, it is of rare beauty and elegance. It is very tall and fills the whole of the chapel, which is quite spacious, and it is made up of hundreds of pieces, many of them in fine gilt carved woodwork (talha dourada). It dates from the first quarter of the 19th century.

As regards the clergy of the Cathedral, we have already said enough in the article cathedral chapter (volume I, page 179), to which we refer the reader. See Neale.

To this article, reproduced in full from the first edition of the Elucidário, it would be fitting to add new material on the history, architecture, works of art and precious liturgical objects of our Cathedral, and also to correct certain shortcomings of information to be found in it. The limited space available to us in these pages, however, has not allowed us to do so.

We take the liberty of referring the reader to the pamphlet we wrote, entitled A Sé Catedral do Funchal and published in 1936, in which we treated the subject at greater length, having gathered further notes from the various works we were able to consult in a brief study we carried out.

1485 – By a charter of 5 June of this year, Dom Manuel, Duke of Beja, as Grand Master of the Order of Christ, granted the land needed in the Campo do Duque for the building of the ‘Great Church’.

1488 – The royal decree (alvará régio) of 21 October authorised the collection of a tax, known as ‘penas’, intended for the new building.

1493 – Conjectural date for the start of the building works, which went on for a long time.

1493–1521 – Within this period, Dom Manuel, first as Grand Master of the Order of Christ and later as monarch, issued various instruments creating revenues and granting several ‘exemptions’ in favour of the future Cathedral. It is chiefly to him that its construction is owed.

1508 – The titular bishop Dom João Lobo blessed the new church, though its construction was still far from complete, and the seat of the parish, which until then had been in the church of Our Lady of Calhau, was transferred to it.

1516 – In 1514, with the creation of the diocese, the ‘Great Church’ became an episcopal cathedral. It was blessed by the titular Bishop of Dume, Dom Duarte, on 18 October 1516.

1518–1521 – The gift of the well-known and precious cross by King Manuel I, a marvel of 16th-century Portuguese goldsmithing, should be dated approximately to this period.

1533 – The archdiocese of Funchal is created, with four suffragan dioceses, and our Cathedral is raised to the rank of an archiepiscopal see. The archdiocese was abolished in 1551.

1566 – During the terrible sack by the French Huguenots, the Cathedral suffered many outrages and profanations, and various works of art were also seriously damaged.

1578 – The first diocesan synod was held in this church with remarkable splendour. It promulgated a set of ‘Constituições Diocesanas’ (diocesan constitutions), published in 1585 in a volume of XVI + 188 pages, which is today a great bibliographical rarity.

1608 – The prelate Dom Luís de Figueiredo e Lemos dies and is buried in the Cathedral. The bishops Dom Gabriel de Almeida, who died in 1674, Dom Friar António Teles da Silva (1682), Dom Friar João do Nascimento (1753), Dom Gaspar Afonso da Costa Brandão (1784), Dom Luís Rodrigues de Vilares (1810) and Dom Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos (1880) also have their last resting place there.

1630 – Around this time work began on completing the chancel, with its fine panelling and interesting choir stalls.

1730–1740 – During this decade the main sacristy and the chapter house, with its outbuildings, were built.

1748 – The earthquake of this year caused considerable damage to the Cathedral building, especially to its tower and façade.

1755 – Around this time the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament was entirely rebuilt, the old one having been demolished.

1775 – A clock is installed in the Cathedral tower; in 1922 it was replaced by another, donated by a foreign national. The set of bells there was acquired in 1812.

1805 – The illustrious Portuguese painter Francisco Vieira, known as ‘Vieira Portuense’, is buried in this church, at a spot that is not known.

1940 – The ‘Museu Diocesano de Arte Sacra’ (Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art) is opened, housed in the rooms of the Chapter House.