It is the seat of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, and is currently the official residence of the Representative of the Republic in that archipelago.
It is a monumental ensemble originally with the dual function of fortification and palace, considered the best and most imposing example of civil and military architecture on the island of Madeira. It comprises the São Lourenço Fortress, begun in the first half of the 16th century and completed at the time of the Philippine Dynasty, and the Palace itself, including the halls on the main floor dating from the last quarter of the 18th century and the interior gardens.
Following the sack of Funchal in 1566, the new master of the Royal Works in Madeira, Mateus Fernandes (III), enlarged the old bastion. A plan of Funchal (Mateus Fernandes, c. 1570), shows the fortress, inside which the Captain's Houses were located, defended by a rectangular wall, to the Southeast of which stood the Manueline turret and, to the Northwest, another turret next to which the French privateers would have entered, in 1566.
In 1572 the defensive design was modified, being increased to three bastions. It was also decided to demolish the houses that were impediments to it, and to cut the balconies on the front of the Calhau, where the city walls were to be built torn by five doors - two to the south facing the sea, one to the east. and two to the west –, running along the walls between the João Gomes and São Francisco streams (currently the São João stream), intersecting the Pena and Pico dos Frias hills.
It is believed that around 1580 the Southwest, quadrangular bastion would be completed, as well as two pentagonal bastions to the North, in a dominant position, covering the city. The fort is described as follows, at the time:
"Just ahead of the Customs [at] a crossbow shot is the old Fortress, which is the main one, situated on a rock, and has six large and beautiful water pipes on the side of the sea that come out of it, and in it rises in the same rock on which it is founded; and in no way can it be taken or hindered by the side of the land of any enemies: which fortress has two towers on the side of the sea, like towers, very strong, that guard the same sea, and artillery, of which are well provided for, and on the side of the land two others, which guard the whole city from above, because they are higher than it; on which part it also has a very high and strong wall, with a very strong trap door. as it has water in it, it has no shortage of mills, ovens and barns to collect the provisions, and rich rooms, where the captain rests, adorned with his garden and freshness." (Gaspar Frutuoso. Missing the Earth.)
At the time of the Philippine Dynasty (1580-1640), the administration of the Madeira archipelago was exercised by General Governors, the first of whom was the judge João Leitão.
The Old Fortress became the seat of the permanent Castilian force that garrisoned the island, and its palace was used to house the Military Governor, D. Agostinho de Herrera, Count of Lanzarote, replaced in 1582 by Captain Juan de Aranda. The works of the fortress were completed in this period, under the direction of the royal works master, Jerónimo Jorge, comprising the construction of the central North bastion, semi-pentagon, at the beginning of the 17th century, garrisoning the Gate of Arms, under the invocation of St. Lawrence. Subsequently, the image - with the date of 1636 (1639?) at its base - would be placed in a niche above the Arms Gate -, the fortress being called "de São Lourenço" and the bulwark "do Castanheiro", given the tree that grew on its esplanade.
Its military profile was softened with the construction of the Palace of the Military Governor of the island, a building with an extensive façade, which underwent extensive remodeling in subsequent centuries.
Its best iconographic representation dates from the mid-17th century: the drawing "Fortaleza de S. Lourenço where the Governor's prison is located on Madeira Island", by Bartolomeu João, in the chorographic chart "Description of Madeira Island, City of Funchal, Villas, Lugares, Ribeiras, Portos and Enceadas, and more Secrets…". In it, it is possible to identify the North and Northwest bastions of the fortress, and an area marked by three openings to the interior of the North bastion, then uncovered, currently integrated in the North body of the palace - the Vasco da Gama Room.
After the Restoration of Portuguese independence (1 December 1640), the news of which was only officially known in Madeira in January 1641, being formalized by the acclaim and recognition of D. João IV (1640-1656), the Castilian prison based in in the Fortress of São Lourenço, dispersing its garrison. Luís de Miranda Henriques, appointed by Margarida of Savoy, Duchess of Mantua on 22 May 1640, remained Governor during 1641.
The Palace continued to be used as a residence for the Governors and Captain-Generals, and, with the advent of the Constitutional Government in 1834, for the Civil Governors from 1835 onwards.
A fire in 1699 partially destroyed the Governor's residence, which led to a new intervention in the residential area of ??the fortress. It is believed that the growth of the South body into one more floor dates from this period, which was absorbed by the construction of the high-ceilinged halls on the main floor at the end of the 18th century. It was in this constructive phase that the residential function came to predominate over the defensive function of the complex, particularly with the work campaign under the government of D. Diogo Pereira Forjaz Coutinho, when the three main halls, currently designated as Sala dos Capitães- Donatories, the Noble or Ballroom and the Red Room, and, later, the Green Room and the gallery that delimits it on the north side, over the interior garden. The ensemble came to be, for this reason, more frequently called "Palace" than "Fortress".
Between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the new wing built on the extension of the noble floor sacrificed the Southwest bastion, on which a new dependency was built, currently known as Sala do Baluarte. The formation of the interior garden, which had a water tank, dates from the same time. Both are figured in a survey by Paulo Dias de Almeida ("Fort.ª de S. Lour.º Rezid.ª dos Governadores", 1805). The same author, in a later work, records: "This fortress only serves as a residence for governors, it has no artillery and the sea battery is very small." ("Description of Madeira Island...", 1817)
In the context of the Peninsular War, the British occupations of Madeira took place:
The first, by the forces of Colonel William Henry Clinton, from July 23, 1801 to January 27, 1802, without direct interference in the civil administration;
The second, between 1807 and 1814, when, on December 24, 1807, the General Staff of Lieutenant-Governor William Carr Beresford was installed at Palácio de São Lourenço, then residence of Governor Pedro Fagundes Bacelar d'Antas e Menezes where, as in all the fortresses of the island, the Flag of the United Kingdom was hoisted, and a proclamation was later published in which the population was led to recognize George III of the United Kingdom as its legitimate sovereign.
This situation continued until the signing of the Madeira Restitution Treaty (London, March 16, 1808), a copy of which arrived in Madeira at the end of April. The São Lourenço Palace was then returned to the civil administration, and Beresford went to Lisbon in August of the same year. A British garrison remained stationed on the archipelago until September 1814, when the Peace Treaty between Great Britain and France was signed that year.
During the administration of the Governor and Captain-General Sebastião Xavier Botelho, several changes were made to the structure of the Palace, the most relevant of which was the displacement of the exterior staircase to access the main floor, which until then was located to the southwest of the interior courtyard and overlooking the chapel. existing there, to the center of that patio, in the same place where the staircase whose stone balustrade dates from the 1940s is located. Painting of Funchal, of the portrait of D. João VI dated 1819, currently in the Audience Room of the Minister of the Republic.
At the end of the Portuguese Civil War (1828-1834), with the signing of the Convention of Évora-Monte (1834), the appointment of Governors and Captain-Generals for the archipelago ceased, initially creating the post of Mayor and, in 1835, , that of Civil Governor, along with a Military Governor.
The separation of powers in the archipelago determined, in the Palácio-Fortaleza, in 1836, the separation between the Barracks of the Governor of Arms, to the east, and the Palace, the official residence of the Civil Governor, to the west, comprising the Noble Rooms, the offices, the residential area, the gardens and the Southwest, Northeast and North strongholds. This division, in essence, currently corresponds to the Operational Command of the Military Zone of Madeira and the official residence of the Minister of the Republic.
Of the changes introduced in the ensemble during the period, the disappearance of the Chapel dating from the early 17th century, as well as the arrangement of the Palace gardens during the management of José Silvestre Ribeiro, stand out:
"Mr. J. S. Ribeiro has taken care of the Palácio da Fortaleza de S. Lourenço, as if it were his property; and here is this grandiose building, here are its gardens, not only well preserved but even considerably improved" ("Briefly Review of Some Services that the Councilor José Silvestre Ribeiro has provided to the District of Funchal")
The landscaping of the Noroeste bastion was undertaken at the initiative of the same Governor, as mentioned in the survey carried out by António Pedro d'Azevedo in 1860, which shows that the garden on the ground floor remains with the same or similar configuration as in 1805, with the respective tank, which would be covered after a son of that Governor had drowned in it.
A new intervention in the Palace took place in 1878, when the south elevation was standardized according to the model that had guided, at the beginning of the century, the building of the room on the Southwest Baluarte. However, as this initiative did not obtain the agreement of the then Military Governor, the part of the building that was allocated to it was not modified, thus remaining until the end of the 1930s.
With the proclamation of the Republic in Portugal (October 5, 1910), the ensemble went into progressive decline, which lasted until the end of the 1930s. In 1931, in the context of the so-called Madeira Revolt, the Revolutionary Junta, constituted on April, led by General Sousa Dias, settled in the São Lourenço Palace, which then also served as a prison, until the transfer to Lazareto, on 27 April, of representatives of the Dictatorship: Silva Leal, High Commissioner of the Government sent to Madeira following the February incidents, Almeida Cabaço, the Civil Governor, and José Maria de Freitas, Military Governor. As the headquarters of the Revolutionary Junta, it was in the Palace that the defense of the island against the forces sent by the Government was organized, until the surrender on 1 May.
In the period between 1938 and 1941, there was a new campaign of works in the Palácio-Fortaleza, under the management of Governor José Nosolini Pinto Leão, reflecting the concept of monumentality underlying the cultural and heritage policy of the Estado Novo, with the resources of a extraordinary subsidy granted to him by the Government through Decree-Law nº 29.742, of July 12, 1939. At the time, the internal areas of the palace, the front gardens, certain curtains and defensive turrets were the object of preservation and improvement works, the appearance of the south facade of the building was unified and its dependencies were destined to house the military leaders of Madeira.
Classified as a National Monument by Decree No. 32973, of August 18, 1943.[1] Since the institution of the autonomous system, in 1976, the Palace sector has been used as the official residence of the Minister of the Republic for the Autonomous Region of Madeira. At the end of the 1990s, the monument was the object of archaeological research, on the initiative of the Minister of the Republic.
Part of the defensive perimeter of the Fortress of São Lourenço was dismantled, a fate that it shared with most of the island's defenses, losing its strategic importance.
The building of its chapel dates from 1635, named after the patron saint, São Lourenço. However, from this temple there is only one inscription engraved in the stonework that alludes to its foundation. In fact, the extensive remodeling and adaptation works carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries altered the palatial façade and demolished the 17th century chapel.
The Northwest turret was maintained after the construction of the Northwest bulwark at the Philippine period, and is represented with four floors by the master of royal works, Bartolomeu João, who succeeded his father, Jerónimo Jorge in 1618. The three upper floors were demolished in the XVIII century. The ground floor of the turret, incorporated into the interior of the Noroeste bastion, was recovered between 1998 and 1999, being integrated into the area of ??the Palace's interior gardens.
Due to its volume and extension, the façade of the São Lourenço Palace stands out, with its numerous windows and balconies. The main door is a work of apparatus, being surmounted by a sculpture alluding to the patron saint.
The palatial interior is majestic and was also remodeled in the 18th and 19th centuries. Of the numerous rooms, for their rich gallant ornamentation, the so-called "Canopy", "Boule", "Empire" rooms or the "Louis XVI" room should be mentioned. Great artistic dignity presents a portrait of João VI of Portugal, work carried out in 1819 by the painter Joaquim Leonardo da Rocha.
The Palace of São Lourenço is still defended by its powerful Filipino bastions, formed by wide walls with esplanades and protective gunboats. In the eastern part there is a circular Manueline turret marked by the coat of arms of this monarch, a work probably carried out by master João de Cáceres - royal military engineer and responsible for the defenses of Funchal from 1513 onwards.
Marked by the Spanish arms of the Philippine dynasty, the North bastion is an imposing witness to the renovation and improvement of the modern defenses of São Lourenço.
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