Ponta Delgada: from the sea fort to the Jesuit church: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
Downtown Ponta Delgada on foot, from the harbour fort to a church that became a museum
Each stop is another layer of the town: a fort, a convent, a synagogue, a gate, a parish church and the museums that keep the island's past.
The stops
Built in the second half of the 16th century, this fortress is described as Renaissance military architecture and has kept a military role ever since. Earthworks created outdoor areas with views over Ponta Delgada that were once unavailable. The Military Museum of the Azores is housed inside.
Photo: Ymblanter — CC BY-SA 4.0 Work on this convent and church began before 1535 under the island's donatary captain Rui Gonçalves da Câmara, and resumed after a pause on the initiative of his widow, Filipa Coutinho. According to the chronicler Gaspar Frutuoso, the first nuns arrived on 23 April 1541 from the convent at Caloura, bringing the image of the Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres, which the convent still shelters. The church has a gilded Baroque altarpiece, and the lower choir is decorated with azulejos by António de Oliveira Bernardes.
Photo: Christophe.Finot — CC BY-SA 3.0 The name means Gate of the Heavens. Abraham Bensaúde and other members of the city's Jewish community founded this synagogue in 1836, in a building they had bought. It sits on an upper floor behind the façade of a typical Azorean house, in a building that also held the rabbi's residence. After more than fifty years closed, it was restored and is now the Sahar Hassamaim Hebrew Museum.
Photo: Ymblanter — CC BY-SA 4.0 Built in the eighteenth century beside the old quay, the three arches of the Portas da Cidade were moved to Gonçalo Velho Cabral Square when the seafront Avenida Infante D. Henrique was built. The middle arch carries the royal coat of arms and the city's coat of arms. Nearby stands the city hall, begun in the late 17th century, whose bell tower portico is inscribed with the date 1724.
Photo: Ymblanter — CC BY-SA 4.0 The parish church of São Sebastião, patron of the city, grew out of a hermitage that the chronicler Gaspar Frutuoso records was raised after a great plague. Work on the present church ran from 1531 to 1547, and the Manueline portals date from then, while the side doors are Baroque, in island basalt. The tower clock was donated in the late 19th century by António Joaquim Nunes da Silva.
Photo: El Coleccionista de Instantes Fotografía & Video — CC BY-SA 2.0 The naturalist Carlos Maria Gomes Machado founded this museum in 1876. It opened as the Museu Açoreano on 10 June 1880 and has carried his name since 1914. Since 1930 it has been in the former Convent of Santo André, founded in 1567 by Diogo Vaz Carreiro and Beatriz Rodrigues Camelo, and its collections cover natural history, art, sacred art and ethnography.
Photo: Reis Quarteu — CC BY-SA 4.0 Governor Gonçalo Vaz Coutinho laid the first stone of this church on 1 December 1592, and it was first inaugurated on 28 February 1593. Its south-facing façade was planned with two clock towers, but only the right one was ever completed. In 2004 the church became a museum for the religious art collection of the Carlos Machado Museum.
Photo: Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0
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