Municipal Garden / Jardim Municipal
On February 21, 1878, the Municipal Chamber of Funchal appointed a committee of councilors, responsible for promoting, under the supervision of the Civil Governor, the establishment of gardens within the grounds of the former convent of S. Francisco and in the area between the same grounds and Praça da Constituição. The land to the west of Praça da Constituição was soon landscaped, but work on the grounds of S. Francisco only began in August 1880, with the project and garden plan approved by the Chamber on September 15, 1881. To cover the expenses required for these works, the Chamber initially allocated the amount of 15 contos, diverted from the loan of 69,980$000 réis, contracted in 1883 with the Companhia Geral do Credito Predial, and later the amount of 19,980$000 réis, from another loan contracted the following year with the same company.
In October 1880, when the first work was being carried out on the grounds of the former convent of S. Francisco, a document from the time states that "a stone was found there, serving as a lid to a small cavity carved in another stone, in which some remains that seemed to be of rotted parchment were found." The stone or lid was sent to the Municipal Archive, where it is not found, and it bore the following inscription in golden letters:
D. Ma. Iª. Queen of P. Pio VI, P. M. Fr. Bernardo N. E. P. D. U. S. C. “ July 1780 “.
On October 1, 1885, the Chamber named the new garden the Municipal Garden, but on September 6, 1897, this name was replaced by Jardim D. Amélia, which remained until October 27, 1910, when it was decided to restore the name given in 1885 to the same area. On March 21, 1902, electric lighting was inaugurated there, and in 1916, the same lighting was improved, as it had already been recognized in 1911 that the energy transmission wires were in poor condition.
On March 28, 1921, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, the ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the monument that Mr. Henrique Vieira de Castro is going to erect in the Municipal Garden, in homage to the aviators who first completed the Lisbon-Madeira raid, was celebrated before a huge audience. The minutes, after being signed by the authorities who attended the ceremony, were enclosed, along with some coins, in an iron chest, which the Civil Governor placed in the foundations of the work (1921).
The first plants introduced in the Municipal Garden came from Paris, with others arriving later from Porto and other sources. Among the species currently growing there, special mention should be made of the Pritchardia filifera, the Phoenix canariensis and the Trachycarpus excelsus, very ornamental palm trees, the Dammara australis and the Ginkgo biloba, broad-leaved conifers, and the Wigandia macrophylla, the Astrapaea Wallichii, the Jossinia tinifolia, the Plumiera lutea, the Pterocarya japonica, the Negundo fraxinifolium and the Alsophila excelsa. On August 29, 1888, the Chamber decided to buy twenty-nine glass panes for the establishment of a greenhouse that still exists in the Municipal Garden, where some curious species grow, especially begonias and ferns. The land and building of the convent of S. Francisco, where the Municipal Garden is located, were ceded to the Chamber by decree of November 7, 1844.