Central Funchal: a church, a garden and a theatre: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
A short walk through the middle of Funchal, down toward the bay
The walk drops from the city's church, city hall and museum, takes in the island's discoverer and a short climb to a parish church, a house museum and a convent with Zarco's tomb, then comes down to a garden on the site of a former convent, a theatre built where a market once stood, a hospice founded in a princess's memory and two parks by the bay.
The stops
The Jesuits built this church in the 17th century, at the point where Mannerist architecture gave way to the Baroque. Inside, gilded wood decorates the single nave, with altarpieces from the 17th and 18th centuries, and blue and white 17th-century tile panels line the sacristy walls. A large organ was installed in 2008.
Photo: Dietmar Rabich — CC BY-SA 4.0 The Carvalhal family built this house in 1758 as their residence, and it stayed theirs until 1820, when the English wine exporter Blackburns & Company took it over. The city rented it in 1868 and took full possession in 1883. A deep rework in 1940 gave it its current look, and the halls are decorated in a 1940s revivalist style and baroque.
Photo: Dr. Thomas Liptak — CC BY-SA 4.0 The museum is housed in the Episcopal Palace of Funchal and was established on 1 July 1955. Among the Flemish painters whose works are shown here are Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Dieric Bouts, Joos van Cleve, Gerard David and Jan Gossart.
Photo: Mattes — CC BY-SA 3.0 Zarco looks out to sea from this bronze, made by the Madeiran sculptor Francisco Franco in 1927. He discovered the island under the command of Prince Henry and was later named the first captain donatary of Funchal. The avenue the statue stands on is named for him, and across it rises the yellow Palácio de São Lourenço, part of which is the official residence of the Representative of the Republic for Madeira.
Photo: Alberto-g-rovi — CC BY 3.0 Work on this church was ordered in 1590, replacing a small hermitage of São Pedro that stood outside the city walls. It was altered several times and only finished for good in 1743, with the altar of the Blessed Sacrament. Its main attraction is the interior, where Baroque carved woodwork and tile cladding on the walls make a rich whole.
Photo: Paulo SP/ Wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0 This reddish building was once the residence of the Counts of Calçada. The Madeiran lawyer and collector Dr. Frederico de Freitas later acquired it to show his collection, which he left to the Region when he died in 1978. It holds glass, ceramics, metals, sculpture, engravings, paintings and furniture, and the Calçada de Santa Clara it sits on is described by the city's tourism page as one of the steepest streets in Funchal.
Photo: PESP/ Wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0 João Gonçalves Zarco, the discoverer of Madeira and first captain donatary of Funchal, commissioned the church here in the 15th century, and it was enlarged at the end of that century into the Santa Clara Convent. The Gothic marble portal and the tombs of Zarco and his family, his wife, son, daughter and son-in-law, survive from the original building. Inside are a silver tabernacle made by Madeiran goldsmiths in 1671 and church panelling with tiles in the Marvila pattern.
Photo: PESP/ Wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0 For several centuries the Convent of São Francisco stood here, and a 17th-century marble coat of arms of the Franciscans and Portugal is still kept along one of the tree-lined walks. Work on the garden began in August 1880, with its first plants brought from Paris and Porto. Today it holds plants from many parts of the world and a small pond with swans and ducks.
Photo: Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0 The theatre opened on 11 March 1888 on the site of the old, defunct São João market, after the council decided in 1882 to build here. Its design follows an Italian model, based on the Teatro de São Carlos in Lisbon and La Scala in Milan. In 1935 it was renamed after Baltazar Dias, the blind playwright and poet born in Madeira.
Photo: Paulo SP/ Wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0 The park was created in 1966 and covers about 36,000 square metres near the Bay of Funchal. The site was first occupied by the Santa Catarina Chapel, built of wood in the early 1400s and upgraded to stone in the 1600s, and the chapel is still in the park. It also has aviaries, paths with benches and some statues, including one of Christopher Columbus.
Photo: Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0 Princess Maria Amélia, weakened by tuberculosis, died in Funchal on 4 February 1853, aged 24. To honour her and thank Madeira for its hospitality, her mother, Empress Amélia, founded the first Portuguese sanatorium on a plot almost opposite the old Quinta das Angústias, where the family had stayed. An international competition chose the design, the first in Portugal, and it was won by the English architect Edward Buckton Lamb, who never came to Funchal. Today it is a home for the elderly with a kindergarten and a school, and its garden paths are paved with basalt pebbles and patterned with limestone pebbles from Porto Santo.
Photo: PESP/ Wikimedia — CC BY-SA 4.0 The estate was first known as Quinta das Angústias, probably because the chapel beside the main house was dedicated to Nossa Senhora das Angústias. The Regional Government bought it in 1979 and remodelled its buildings and gardens, and since 2 May 1984 it has been the official residence of the President of the Regional Government of Madeira. The gardens have views over the bay, large trees, palm trees and subtropical species, along with some Madeiran flora.
Photo: Dr. Thomas Liptak — CC BY-SA 4.0 This life-size bronze of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sissi, is by the sculptor António Augusto Lagoa Henriques and stands in the gardens of the Casino Park hotel. It was made to make her passage through Madeira better known and to keep her memory alive. The Quinta Vigia's list of illustrious guests records her visit in 1860, an attempt to treat an illness.
Photo: Dr. Thomas Liptak — CC BY-SA 4.0
Hear the full story as you walk, or create your own walk, in the Alleytale app.