‘O Visconde Indomável’
JM reports that filming is taking place in Ribeira Brava (video) for the documentary ‘O Visconde Indomável’ which portrays the life and work of the “indomitable” Viscount Francisco Correia de Herédia.
The first images were captured in Lisbon, on the 11th and 12th of March, with the staging of the death of the Viscount, in a scenario that dates back to the 16th of October, 1918.
In Ribeira Brava, the idea is to stage the life of Francisco Correia de Herédia in his youth, recreating the tennis games in the churchyard, known as Pateo ‘O Ténis’, where the Viscount practised his sport of choice.
There will also be filming in the central streets of the village and in the gardens of the Municipality with the well-respected actress Inês Heredia. Filming takes place this weekend and will resume on the 25th and 26th of May.
1st Viscount of Ribeira Brava
Son of António Correia de Herédia (1822-1899), who had been a deputy, mayor and civil governor of the District of Funchal , and D. Ana Aniceto de Bettencourt Herédia, both born in Funchal, Francisco was titled 1st Viscount of Ribeira Brava in his lifetime. He was named after his paternal grandfather, Francisco Correia de Herédia, hence his name Francisco Correia de Herédia Júnior.
In 1905 , Francisco Correia de Herédia and José Maria de Alpoim, Minister of Justice of Portugal, split from mainline politics together with the progressive party. During the relentless combat against the monarchy, republicans and ” dissidents ” from the Progressive Party formed a revolutionary committee:
The first meeting of this committee was held on July 11, 1907, at the viscount’s residence. That would have been the birth of the plan for the revolutionary movement of January 28, 1908, which had the purpose of deposing João Franco, one of the dominant politicians of the final phase of the Portuguese constitutional
monarchy.
The weapons for the planned overthrowing on 28th of January were personally purchased at Espingardaria Central, in downtown Lisbon, and guarded by the Viscount of Ribeira Brava.
After the regicide of D. Carlos I and Príncipe Real, on the 1st of February 1908, in which he tried to exonerate himself from having conspired, even though the weapons in his possession ended up in the hands of the regicides, attesting to his opposition to the Portuguese monarchy by joining the Portuguese Republican Party, under the guidance of Afonso Costa, and held positions of great political influence in Madeira.
This murder of D Carlos I, according to Wikipedia, profoundly marked the History of Portugal, marking the end of the last serious attempt to reform the Constitutional Monarchy and generating a new escalation of violence in the country’s public life.
The Viscount was killed in a mysterious shootout in Lisbon on October 16, 1918, while being transferred to another prison along with other political prisoners.