A lot of history ‘hides’ Largo do Pelourinho, whose original stone column was erected in 1486 in the square that gained the aforementioned name, by order of Duke D. Manuel, with the aim of “executing justice relating to minor penalties, including Punishment by whipping stood out.”
In 1835, the pillory was ordered to be demolished and its fragments were kept in the Quinta das Cruzes Museum. But, in the 90s of the last century, the Funchal City Council decided to build a new column, a replica of the original Molianos limestone replica, in the so-called Largo do Pelourinho.
Image from 2018.
There, businesses were concentrated and people circulated in the city to take care of their business in the surrounding and nearby streets, shop at the market, socialize and catch the buses nearby.
The small square, today between the mouth of the João Gomes and Santa Luzia rivers, was once considered the center of the city of Funchal. It was there that Funchal’s first customs office and the first commercial trading posts were established. In this square, vendors were concentrated, in a fair connected to Rua Direita, with tents where many women sold various products.
It was a place full of life, which after several moments in its central history and in the surrounding streets – fell victim to floods that occurred in October 1993 and February 2010 and to fires that broke out in the old ‘Socarma’ building, in the old factory de São Filipe, in October 1974 and, more recently, in 2019, in the old building of Insular de Moinhos – it was reborn from the ashes, with a contemporary image, but without forgetting the traces of its past.
There, Pelourinho continues to reside, in a different setting, markedly from the 21st century, and the discovered ruins are protected, with the intention of being seen in a nucleus where archeology maintains the connection to the historical past of the city linked to the sea.