CALHETA

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Lime Kiln

The lime kiln, built in 1911, is an example of civil industrial construction using basalt and mortar. It was owned by António Rodrigues Brás and C.a.

Limestone was burned in the kiln to produce lime, which was used for filling spaces between stones and coating walls. The building of the kiln was a reflection of the significant growth in the construction of housing in the early twentieth century. It is the only lime kiln in the municipality and one of the few existing in the Archipelago. Its roof was restored in 1993.

António Rodrigues Brás Mill

This industrial plant was built as a mill and founded by António Rodrigues Brás in 1908 on his property. Around 1922, the ownership of the industrial complex and the lime kiln was transferred to Manuel Rodrigues Brás, Dr. José Noé da Silva Martins and engineer António Manuel Rodrigues Brás. In later years it belonged to the company Brás Teixeira & C.a Lda before it became the property of the Municipality of Calheta.

The mill also operated at another location, north of the current City Hall. Today, the only parts that remain are the chimney in cut stone and some pieces of the furnace that are on display in the Calheta Village Municipal Park.

Finance Building

The building housing the Finance Department and some municipal services belongs to the government of the municipality, which has already functioned there.

The building dates from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and consists of three floors. Its rectangular plan, with window frames of gray ashlar stone and shutters, are typical features of Madeiran-style civil architecture. It was located by the sea until 1871, when it was damaged by the ocean.

Calheta City Hall Building 

This noble and robust building of civil architecture of longitudinal plan has a Mannerist portal of regional gray ashlar stone in a semi-circular arch. Owned by the Santa Casa da Misericórdia da Calheta, founded on October 7, 1535, it incorporated the hospital—which had been established by Rodrigues Eanes on July 17, 1505—and a private chapel where the religious services of the Brotherhood were held. It was built to shelter invalids and patients.

The building was restored in 1921 and resumed operations, however, its activity is thought to have been terminated, as it reappears on April 14, 1956, with the approval of a new Commitment by the Administrative Commission of the Misericórdia. The restoration of the building and the construction of a hospital in Lombo da Estrela began in 1958, so the headquarters of the Misericórdia in the Village of Calheta gave way to the preparatory cycle of schooling on September 28, 1972. When the Simão Gonçalves da Câmara Preparatory School was moved to another location in 1981, the Misericórdia da Calheta ceded the space to the Municipal Hall of Calheta, where it remains to this day, and where most of its administrative services and mayoral offices are found.

Fountain

In 1921, the Calheta Town Hall built a unique fountain next to the old houses in the Praça da Ponte in the Village. Constructed in cement masonry, it has four sides and is 6.10 metres high overall and includes a circular basin 0.80 m high and 2.40 m in diameter.

This and other fountains, characteristic of Utilitarian Architecture, had piped water and were built to facilitate domestic consumption and improve the hygiene conditions of the residents. They were also favourite places for citizens to gather together and socialise.

Sociedade de Engenhos da Calheta - Engenho de Lopes e Duarte 

This characteristic building of Industrial Architecture appeared during the second sugar cycle, as a water-powered mill, founded by Vicente Lopes in 1894. After his death in 1896, a partnership was made between D. Maria Gonçalves Lopes, his widow, and Vitória de Jesus with José Sardinha Duarte, called Lopes & Duarte, in 1901. An auxiliary steam engine was introduced around this time.

However, in 1924 a third of the mill was leased for 14 years to the merchant Alfredo Vitorino Gomes. The consolidation of the mills of Calheta was decreed on May 14, 1954, and renamed "Sociedade de Engenhos da Calheta Lda". It continues in operation to this day, and visitors can watch it still working with the old machinery. This is where the famous sugarcane honey cakes of Calheta and the brandy are produced. The original engine room has been maintained; there is a room dedicated to the Madeiran fado singer of Coimbrã tradition, Edmundo Bettencourt; a tasting room and, more recently, a small museum with old machinery of the mill has been opened.

Mother Church of Calheta

Originally headquartered in the Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Estrela, the Mother Church of Calheta was built in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and rebuilt in 1639.

It is a temple dedicated to the Holy Spirit and preserves an artistic, religious and architectural collection highlighting characteristics of the Manueline and Mannerist period. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries it collected a vast and valuable set of sacred goldsmithery, among which the major works are the processional cross, the three lamps of the chapel of the Most Holy, and the baptismal font. It is also worth mentioning the tabernacle worked in ebony with silver ornamentations, which according to tradition, was offered by king D. Manuel I to his "beloved Vila Nova da Calheta". Also noteworthy is the ceiling of the chancel and the central nave in Moorish style, as well as a set of perfectly sculpted images. In the mid-twentieth century the churchyard was remodeled with rolled pebble containing the inscription of the date alluding to its construction, 1954.

Casa das Mudas

Located in the Vale dos Amores, this building also deserves the name Solar dos Cabrais. It belonged to Duarte de Brito and Joana Cabral (granddaughter of Zarco) in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The structure that has come down to our days, however, dates from the year 1759, which is inscribed on the lintel of a window. The daughters of the previous heir, João de Ornelas Cabral, were mute and died without any children, the house then passing on to the goddaughter of one of the majorats, Henriqueta Gouveia. Later, her grandson Francisco José de Gouveia sold the property and land to the General Board of Funchal, and the property became public domain. It was adapted for use as the House of Culture, and on the first floor there is an exhibition hall and on the second floor the Municipal Library of Calheta, which formerly belonged to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.