… restoration complete
JM reports that the work of rehabilitation and restoration of the visitable part of the Santa Clara Convent is completed and were inaugurated yesterday by the President of the Regional Government, Miguel Albuquerque.
The works that took place in the Santa Clara Convent were divided into two components.
The first of the components consisted of the overall improvement of the Church and Convent of Santa Clara, including projects for Fire Safety in Buildings and Electrical and Telecommunications Installations.
The global improvement project for the visitable areas of the Church and Convent of Santa Clara began in August 2019 and ended in March 2021.
In turn, the contract to implement the “museology/museography project for the areas that can be visited in the Convent of Santa Clara (Funchal)”, which began in September 2022 and ended in late April 2023.
The second component of government intervention concerned the conservation and restoration of the artistic, movable and integrated heritage.
In this way, conservation and restoration services for painting, sculpture and mobile/integrated gilded carving at the Convent of Santa Clara began in September 2020 and ended in January 2022.
At the same time, starting in November 2020 and ending in January 2022, conservation and restoration work on tiles in the Convent of Santa Clara also took place.
Also noteworthy was the production/editing of a bilingual guide on the Santa Clara Convent, completed in December 2022, whose texts were by Francisco Clode de Sousa, Paulo Ladeira and Rita Rodrigues and the design was in charge of the company ‘Linhas de Letters’.
Outside the ERDF application, graphic supports were also created, completed and placed
In terms of Archaeology, emphasis should be given to carrying out a study of the daily life of the Convent of Santa Clara – Archaeological excavation of the cistern wells of the Santa Clara Convent. The intervention on the 3 cisterns is completed.
Located on Calçada de Santa Clara, this building was erected between 1489 and 1496 by order of the second captain of Funchal, João Gonçalves da Câmara. At the time, the purpose of the construction of these facilities was to house the daughters of the local nobility.
The group of buildings that make up the Santa Clara Conventl, is of great architectural and artistic value. On its walls, it displays Hispano-Arabic tiles dating from the 17th century. In turn, the ceilings are worked in wood. These facilities also house a collection of restored 17th- and 18th-century canvases.