Torreão
Describes the Torreão, a small square and bridge in Funchal on the old pilgrim route to Monte, rebuilt in masonry by Governor Diogo Forjaz Coutinho in 1787, and the nearby Torreão sugar factory.
This is the name of the small square and of the bridge connected with it, although it is not a name known in Madeiran toponymy. On the spot now occupied by the Ponte do Torreão (‘turret bridge’), or perhaps very close by, there was a wooden bridge meeting the Caminho da Torrinha (‘little tower road’). Across it passed the numerous pilgrims making their way to the chapel – from 1565 the parish church – of Our Lady of the Mount (Nossa Senhora do Monte). The present Caminho do Monte (‘Monte road’) was opened to the public, on the route it still follows, only at the beginning of the 19th century. Diogo Forjaz Coutinho, one of the most illustrious governors of Madeira, had a new and solid arched bridge of alvenaria (local name for compact basalt used as building stone) built there. On one of the parapets of its deck a curious and picturesque stone inscription was placed; it is now kept in the entrance hall of the Municipal Museum, and we transcribe it word for word:
It was later widened, as the present traffic of passers-by and goods at this spot required.
Close by stands the well-known Fábrica do Torreão (‘turret factory’), the most important industrial establishment here in Madeira. It has always been a great source of prosperity for our agricultural industry, with a marked effect on every aspect of Madeiran life.
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Time
Years mentioned · 03Place
Places mentioned · 07- Torreão · Subject
Funchal
The Torreão is a small square and bridge in Funchal on the old pilgrim route to Monte, rebuilt in masonry by Governor Diogo Forjaz Coutinho in 1787. Nearby stood Hinton's sugar factory, the island's main industrial plant, and the second American-vine nursery.
- Caminho da Torrinha
Funchal. Path met by the old wooden bridge used by pilgrims going to Monte.
Road in Santa Luzia, Funchal, near the Santa Luzia chapel and giving access to the Quinta da Palmeira. An old wooden bridge used by pilgrims going to Monte met this path.
- Caminho do Monte
Funchal. Road to Monte opened on its present route in the early 19th century.
Road leading from Funchal up to Monte, opened on its present route in the early 19th century. The Elucidário records it as the route by which penitential processions returned to the Monte church, as bordering several sanatorium properties, and as the road at whose start stood the former seminary where the Coimbra University tuna lodged.
- Church of Our Lady of the Mount
Funchal. Pilgrimage chapel, parish church from 1565, to which the bridge route led.
Pilgrimage church and, from 1565, parish church of Monte, standing at 595 m above Funchal at the centre of the Monte resort. It was rebuilt in 1741–47 and consecrated in 1818, and Emperor Charles is buried there. The image of Nossa Senhora do Monte set out from it and returned to it in penitential processions.
- Fábrica do Torreão
Funchal. Major sugar factory near the bridge, the island's most important industrial establishment.
The Fábrica do Torreão is a sugar and alcohol factory near the bridge in the parish of Santa Luzia, Funchal, founded by William Hinton and described as the island's most important industrial establishment. It held the monopoly and was the sole sugar factory under the 1930s regime; an unexploded shell fell nearby in 1917.
- Funchal Municipal Museum
Funchal. Museum whose atrium holds the bridge's 1787 inscription.
The Museu Municipal do Funchal is a museum in Funchal. It keeps the sword attributed to Zargo, Gil Enes's gravestone, a seal specimen and the image of St George, and its atrium holds the 1787 inscription from the Torreão bridge.
- Ponte do Torreão
Funchal. The bridge that gives the entry its name, replacing an earlier wooden bridge.
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.
People
People mentioned · 01-
Governor of Madeira, described as one of its most illustrious, who had the masonry arch bridge at Torreão built in 1787.