Ponte do Ribeiro Seco
Santo António · Funchal
Bridge over the Ribeiro Seco at the start of the Estrada Monumental, parish of São Martinho, municipality of Funchal
The Ponte do Ribeiro Seco is a bridge over the Ribeiro Seco at the start of the Estrada Monumental, near Funchal. First planned by Mouzinho de Albuquerque as a monument to the Duke of Bragança, it was built in 1848–49 under Governor José Silvestre Ribeiro, with public donations and the surplus of the 1846–47 famine food fund. It served as a vertex of the 1909 city boundary and was the scene of suicides, notably a scandal of about 1860.
1Mentioned in
- São Martinho (parish) — Bridge at the start of the Estrada Monumental.
- Famine in Madeira in 1846 and 1847 — Bridge built in 1848 with the surplus of the famine food fund.
- Funchal – I. Origin of the name — Vertex of the 1909 city boundary.
2Chronology
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Sérvulo Drumond de Meneses published document collections on the mendicity asylum, the famine and the building of the Ribeiro Seco bridge.
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Paid for by the surplus of the famine relief fund and contracted on 27 February for 5.799$000 réis, construction of the Ribeiro Seco bridge began under José Silvestre Ribeiro on 6 March 1848, being nearly finished by year end.