ARCO DA CALHETA

  • Print

PERESTRELLOS PHOTOGRAPHOS
MFM-AV, inv. PER/109

Chapel of Our Lady of Loreto

Manueline chapel with a longitudinal plan and a single nave; it was built by D. Joana d'Eça, wife of Zarco's grandson, Pedro Gonçalves da Câmara, its construction dating to around 1510. Worth noting in the interior are the marble basin for the holy water in Renaissance style, contemporary with the construction of the chapel and the alfarge ceiling painted in blue and white, which displays an interesting geometric composition. The chapel later became the possession of Count Carvalhal, before being designated as a parish in 1961. In the twentieth century (1902), the chapel was enlarged with the addition of rectangular galilee of 3 naves. 

Church of São Brás

This Mannerist church has a longitudinal plan and is referred to in the will of Brás Ferreira. It was built by order of João Fernandes do Arco around the years 1520-1523. It was rebuilt, in the eighteenth century, between 1744 and 1754, and was blessed on January 1, 1755. It contains a set of six sixteenth-century paintings that represent São Brás and the donors Brás de Freitas and Maria Vieira.

Chapel of Our Lady of Nazareth and St. Joseph

This seventeenth-century Revivalist chapel was built in 1689, being founded by Antonia de Cristo and Leonarda de Horto for the celebration of masses. The chapel still retains the basin for the holy water from the initial structure, which is found on the exterior, on the right side of the main façade. The chapel underwent restoration works in the decade of the 30s in the nineteenth century by order of António João Barbosa de Matos e Câmara and was remodelled in the second half of the twentieth century.

The Manuel Rocha de Gouveia Mill (Engenho Velho)

This ox-driven mill, built in 1883 by Francisco Luís Pereira and João de Andrade, was acquired by D. Juliana of France, in 1900, who installed a new water mill. In the late twentieth century, it was adapted serve as a hotel and restaurant.

Mill of Diogo de Ornelas de França Carvalhal Frazão Figueiroa

Built in 1857 by the 1st Count of Calçada, Diogo de Ornelas de França Carvalhal Frazão Figueiroa, this steam-powered mill was used for the distillation of brandy and the production of sugar. In the early sixteenth century, this was the site of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Conception, built by Gil Enes, the master of the works of the Funchal Cathedral.

In 1917 the mill was sold by D. Maria Augusta de Ornelas Frazão e Silva and her husband, José Sotero e Silva to Henrique Figueira da Silva, a banker. It was recently acquired by the businessman Avelino Farinha Agrela, who built the current Savoy Saccharum hotel in honour of the mill. The hotel displays some pieces of equipment related to the old mill and employs toponymic references to sugar in the designation of its spaces.

Chapel of Our Lady of Life

This seventeenth-century Mannerist chapel has a simple longitudinal plan with the attached sacristy on its right side. Founded by D. Inês Teixeira in 1663, it was used to celebrate the divine offices and was a place of great veneration for fishermen and sailors who came there to ask for protection. It was rebuilt in the second half of the nineteenth century, with further work done in 1986.

On July 17, 1997, the chapel was donated by Dr Adérito Gomes Ferreira and his wife, D. Adriana Maria Teixeira Pestana Gomes, to the Autonomous Region of Madeira.

Port of Fajã do Mar

Also called the "Port of Our Lady of Life", given its proximity to the chapel of the same name, it was a small landing made with concrete additions forming small platforms on protruding rocks, which can still be seen today. It was from the port of Fajã do Mar that the population of Calheta travelled to Funchal, using coastal shipping on boats that transported cargo and passengers and docked next to small piers, as is the case of this one. It was from this port that, in 1938, João Gomes de Sousa, the Wizard of Calheta, left for Funchal with the Arco da Calheta folk dance group, which won the folk-dance contest at the 1st Grape Harvest Festival.