It was in “Chão do Duque” D. Manuel that a sumptuous church with a Latin cross plan, three naves, a transept, and an apse facing east would rise. The design must have necessarily come from Lisbon and was adapted on-site to the topography of the land, executed with regional stone materials. The temple began to be built at the end of the 15th century, starting with the chancel under the responsibility of the then King D. Manuel I, while the rest of the church body was the responsibility of the inhabitants of Funchal, for whom taxes were levied to fund its construction.

Today, in the church later elevated to the status of a Cathedral, despite the works and alterations it underwent over the centuries, we can still find elements of late Gothic/Manueline style, a very refined mendicant Gothic, with master stonemason Gil Enes as its principal craftsman. Its architectural structure has remained largely unchanged, making it an iconic building in the center of Funchal. The church was elevated to the dignity of a Cathedral in 1514 by Pope Leo X, becoming the first Cathedral of the Portuguese Discoveries era, with jurisdiction over all territories discovered and to be discovered by the Portuguese, from Madeira to the lands of the Orient.

Notable in its main façade, topped with a gable, is the central section made of red ashlar from Cabo Girão, featuring a rose window in colored stone and a pointed arch portal with six columns and the same number of archivolts, with vegetal capitals, crowned above by what appears to be a monstrance, topped by the coat of arms of King D. Manuel I.

In this portal, often overlooked by visitors, we can observe the curious door, with a face likely crafted in the 17th or 18th century, but on the reverse, we find incised Hispano-Arabic designs, suggesting that it reused wood from an old Mudéjar door or that it served as a preparatory sketch for the ceiling work of the Cathedral.

Externally, the chancel features stepped buttresses to support the vault and is topped with large twisted pinnacles with latticework of the Cross of Christ in the south lateral chapel and a simple balustrade in the main chapel, already reflecting Renaissance taste.

Interestingly, the tall bell tower is not located on the main façade, as is usual, but next to the chancel of the church, attached to the transept, perhaps due to hesitations or uncertainties in the project. This tower, with a primitive medieval and military appearance, features a parapet with merlons and battlements and is crowned by a pyramidal spire covered with monochromatic Seville tiles in a checkerboard pattern, creating a striking visual effect, as determined by King D. Manuel. Internally, it has four floors with ribbed vaults and windows facing east. This tower temporarily served as an ecclesiastical prison, which is why the adjacent street took the name "Aljube."

At the end of the 19th century, a dignified and permanent venue for performances, particularly theater and music, was finally erected, after many small, ephemeral, and provisional theaters had disappeared.

Once again, it was the dynamic counselor José Silvestre Ribeiro who proposed the idea for its construction. The Funchal City Council eventually took on the entrepreneurial task of building a Municipal Theater.

The project was designed by the Porto architect Tomás Augusto Soller, who drew inspiration from European models, particularly the Scala in Milan. The cornerstone was laid in 1883, on the site of the old market, a plot of land that once belonged to the now-vanished Convent of São Francisco, much like the Municipal Garden located immediately in front of it, with the garden's pond extending almost to the theater's doors.

For the scenography and interior decoration, two renowned artists were called upon: the Italian scenographer Luigi Manini, responsible for the Buçaco Palace, and the Portuguese artist Eugénio Cotrim.

The theater, originally named D. Maria Pia in honor of the then-queen, features a neoclassical style, in line with contemporary national and international architecture. Its symmetrical main façade showcases large round-arched doors in the central section and segmental arches in the side sections, with ample windows in a classical style. All openings are framed with raised plaster moldings, and the central section features blind balustrades, cornices, Doric pilasters, and a parapet crowning the building, concealing the roof. These elements are characteristic of neoclassical design and are used abundantly here without the intrusion of other styles. Notably, the building is crowned by a large coat of arms of the city of Funchal.

The ceilings were painted in a romantic style. The horseshoe-shaped auditorium is surrounded by balconies and boxes adorned with carved and gilded wooden masks representing Greek theater. At the center is the royal box, topped by the city's coat of arms. The ceiling of the performance hall, dominated by a heavy chandelier, features a trompe-l'oeil painting with "putti" floating among clouds.

With the establishment of the Republic, the theater was renamed Teatro Manuel Arriaga, after the Azorean who was a deputy for Madeira in the Constituent Assembly and later became the first President of the Republic. It was also briefly called Teatro Funchalense, and under the administration of the diligent Mayor Fernão de Ornelas, it was renamed Baltazar Dias, in honor of the great blind playwright and poet born in Madeira in the 16th century, an indispensable figure in Portuguese and colonial theater.

Edmundo Tavares is the architect behind the Mercado dos Lavradores, a project from the late 1930s that aligns with the new formal language of international models. The building occupies an entire city block and emphasizes the functionalism of its designed spaces over ornamental elements, evident in its minimalist decor. This simplicity is only countered by the Baroque revivalist tile panels depicting scenes of market life, created by the Battistini ceramics factory under Maria de Portugal and designed by the painter João Rosa Rodrigues, as well as by the 17th-century revivalist tile wainscoting with a "massaroca" pattern that lines the interior staircases.

Later, on the exterior, where a large iron and glass framework had been sealed, a tile panel by the German painter Max Römer was installed, depicting scenes from the old D. Pedro V market.

The building features large open spans and an intimate open interior courtyard surrounded by galleries on two floors, adhering to the orthodox principles of the International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM), which advocated for welcoming spaces. These generous openings flood the building with natural light, and the structure is covered by concrete slabs at various levels. The tower-like volumes animate the sober and asymmetrical façade with curvilinear forms and cantilevered slabs that define the main façade. Also noteworthy are the Art Deco-inspired window frames and gates.

The palacete that once belonged to the family of the Count of Carvalhal, now the headquarters of the Funchal City Council, dates back to the mid-18th century and features a modest Baroque style. The main façade is adorned with an elaborate flaming portal, finely sculpted in regional hard stone, with pilasters, volutes, and shell motifs, harmonizing with a large window of the same stylistic language, topped by the municipal coat of arms. This two-story building, with robust pilastered corners crowned by pinnacles, features noble-floor windows with stone balconies, curved lintels, and undulating cornices that animate the façade, creating a sense of movement. The tall tower, remodeled in the 1940s, has three large arched stone windows on its top floor, repeated on all four sides, accessed by a continuous balcony. Inside, a grand three-flight staircase made of gray stone, under an arcade of the same material, leads to the noble floor.

In the late 1930s, the Funchal City Council invited architect Raul Lino to design new façades (side and rear) to be added to the palacete. Lino responded with a neomannerist and neobaroque design, mimicking the language of Madeiran manor houses and aligning with his theoretical writings. He also redesigned the "ship-spotting" tower, characteristic of 18th-century Madeiran manor houses, now more imposing and open to the landscape on the top floor. In these new sections, the intermediate service-floor windows align with the noble-floor openings, illuminated by balconied windows with simple stone frames and pronounced cornice lintels. In the new interior courtyard, the neoclassical marble sculpture Leda and the Swan was placed, relocated from the old D. Pedro V Market in 1941. The atrium and access areas feature blue-and-white neorococo tiles from the Battistini ceramics factory, dated 1940.

To enhance and free up the Palácio dos Paços do Concelho, the Praça do Município (Municipal Square) was designed over the old Largo do Colégio, incorporating the former grounds of the Episcopal Palace. This project, envisioned by Francisco Caldeira Cabral with contributions from Raul Lino, includes a neobaroque fountain-obelisk made of regional hard stone, marking the center of the square and topped with an armillary sphere and the Cross of Christ. The square, paved with Portuguese calçada in beautiful shell-like patterns, also highlights and relieves the historic buildings of the Jesuit College and the Episcopal Palace, now the Museum of Sacred Art of Funchal.

The Fortaleza-Palácio de S. Lourenço is one of the finest examples of Portuguese fortification from the 16th and 17th centuries. Initially serving as the residence of the captains of Funchal and later the governors and captain-generals, it evolved beyond its original defensive functions to become a fortress-palace symbolizing power and authority. While a palace was constructed within its walls, it retained its original fortress-like exterior.

The construction began as a small bastion, a semi-oval defensive tower built in 1540 on the rocky outcrop of the Fontes de João Dinis, near the captain’s residence. It displayed the royal emblem and coat of arms and was later integrated into the sea-facing wall. The fortress included a cistern tower that supplied water to ships and the coastal population of Funchal. These architectural elements have fortunately survived to this day. In the oldest section, we can observe the royal coat of arms, windows with conopial lintels, battlements crowning the roof, a Mudéjar-style ceiling, and an interior ribbed vault. The cistern is now topped by a romantic 19th-century "pleasure house," connected to the palace by two broad stone arches.

Following attacks by French corsairs, the fortress underwent significant renovations during the Philippine period to enhance its defensive capabilities.

Notable is the old entrance gate of the Fortaleza de S. Lourenço, now the portal to the Madeira Military Museum, featuring Mannerist design in regional stonework. It consists of a round arch with a triangular pediment, topped by a niche for the patron saint, flanked by small openings, all in regional hard stone. The arch's entablature bears the national coat of arms, with a crown on the pediment's tympanum. This noble portal was likely built during the renovations led by royal architect Mateus Fernandes after the French corsairs' sack of Funchal.

Over the centuries, various campaigns adapted the fortress to new functions and needs, transforming it into a true palace. The construction of the noble floor in the late 18th century, initiated by Governor Diogo Pereira Forjaz Coutinho, with its sumptuous rooms and neoclassical façade on the western side of the palace, exemplifies this transformation.

After the Liberal Revolution of 1820, the Fortaleza-Palácio was divided between the Civil Government to the west and the Military Government to the east. Today, these sections are occupied by the Representative of the Republic for the Autonomous Region of Madeira (including the Noble Rooms and a private residence) and the Madeira Military Zone Command, which occupies the oldest Manueline-style section of the palace. The southern façade of the military section remained unchanged, creating a stylistic contrast with the noble façade.

The current configuration of the noble floor, with its unified neoclassical sea-facing façade, dates to the tenure of Governor Dr. José Nosolini Leão, who extensively remodeled the palace between 1938 and 1941. This renovation, part of broader urban reforms in Funchal under Mayor Dr. Fernão de Ornelas, gave the palace its iconic status as a symbol of central power during the Estado Novo. The windows, leading to a continuous balcony, feature regional hard stone frames with triangular pediments and wooden louvered shutters with decorative lambrequins. Highlights include the Ballroom with its rhythmic fluted Ionic pilasters and the Banquet Hall with a Palladian window.

To enhance the palace, fine furniture and paintings were brought from the National Palaces of Ajuda and Belém, as well as the National Museum of Ancient Art. This collection was later supplemented with furniture from the old Funchal customs house and estates of prominent Madeiran families, including items from the auction of the Palacete dos Condes da Calçada, now the Frederico de Freitas House-Museum. The sumptuous neoclassical rooms were also adorned with allegorical and trompe-l'oeil paintings by the renowned German painter Max Römer.

The palace hosted notable guests, including Queen Adelaide of England in 1847, received by Governor José Silvestre Ribeiro; Empress Sissi of Austria in 1861; and King Carlos and Queen Amélia of Portugal in 1901, the first Portuguese monarchs to visit the island, temporarily transforming the Palácio de S. Lourenço into a royal residence.

In the mid-1940s, the old and extensive Hospital of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia do Funchal, dating back to the 17th century, was repurposed to house the headquarters of the Junta Geral do Distrito Autónomo do Funchal, now known as the Palácio do Governo (Government Palace). This change had already been proposed by Ventura Terra in his urban plan (later taken up by Carlos Ramos), which envisioned the consolidation of public services in this location.

The former Episcopal Palace, now the Museum of Sacred Art of Funchal, underwent significant renovation after the great earthquake of 1748 but retains a very restrained, Mannerist architectural style, devoid of the flamboyant and sculptural decorative excesses typical of national Baroque. The project was overseen by Captain of Engineers and Royal Master Builder Domingos Rodrigues Martins.

The expansive main façade, facing Rua do Bispo, is crowned by a pronounced cornice and features a portal still imbued with Mannerist influences, with pilasters and a high entablature with a projecting cornice inscribed with the date 1750. This portal is flanked by two grated windows with undulating frames in hard stone. The windows on the intermediate floor are aligned with those on the noble floor, which are framed in gray stone with undulating fillets and topped by pronounced curved cornices, featuring individual balconies with wrought-iron railings.

At the ends of the façade, two doors open with frames similar in design to those of the ground-floor windows, flanked by quadrilobed oculi.

The northern façade, which faced the former Episcopal Palace grounds, is naturally more subdued, with simple fenestrations in regional stone. The windows on the noble floor and the tower feature entablatures with raised cornices.

The monumental quadrangular block is crowned by a ship-spotting tower, with a covered balcony facing the sea, centered and set back, adorned with beautiful Baroque tiles depicting the allegorical representation of the three theological virtues: Faith, Hope, and Charity.

To the west, the building still retains part of its original Renaissance arcade, with round arches supported by Tuscan columns, dating back to the early 17th century, which survived the earthquake. This section is completed by the Chapel of São Luís de Tolosa, which features a magnificent, elaborately carved portal in hard stone.

The design of the grand Colégio dos Jesuítas (Jesuit College) was created by the royal master builder Mateus Fernandes in 1574 but was later revised by the principal architects of the Society of Jesus in Lisbon and Rome, notably the renowned Father Pedro da Fonseca.

Construction began in 1599 with the erection of the wing facing Rua do Castanheiro. Today, the vast college complex houses the Rectorate of the University of Madeira and educational facilities of the Diocese of Funchal, centered around two spacious cloisters: the Cloister of the Students and the Cloister of the Fathers. The college originally opened onto the current Rua dos Ferreiros, then called Rua do Estudo, through two doors: one for students, recently reopened in a successful contemporary intervention, and another providing access to the grounds, built in gray stone and adorned with the royal coat of arms, now occupied by the Henriques wine shop. The entire courtyard has been excellently restored by architects Rui Campos Matos and Vasco Marques. During the restoration, the arches were unblocked, the bell tower that once called students to class was reinstalled, the original pebble pavement was uncovered, and the garden was reestablished. This project deservedly received the Funchal City Council's Heritage Restoration Award.

The imposing rectangular building features five spacious corridors distributed across two floors. On the ground floor, some areas have round arches rising directly from the floor, once used as storage for provisions from the fertile Quinta Grande (which gave its name to the locality) and the Jesuit-owned Fajã dos Padres at the foot of the cliffs.

The Students' Courtyard features windows with frames of regional hard stone, some with aprons, and the façade facing Rua dos Ferreiros has gables topped with pinnacles. Inside, the windows of the cells and corridors retain the traditional stone conversation seats. In the former chapel, located on the ground floor of the wing facing Rua do Castanheiro, 17th- and 18th-century arcades and Mannerist-style stone doors remain.

The college's ceilings are of 17th- and 18th-century wooden beams and 19th-century stucco work.
Construction of the College Church began in 1629, featuring a single large nave (a "box church") modeled after the Church of the Gesù in Rome, including São Roque in Lisbon, which became the typological template for Jesuit churches worldwide. The church has a false transept and a wide chancel, with the nave flanked by interconnected side chapels. The Mannerist-style temple, with a gabled façade crowned by the royal coat of arms in marble, features three portals in hard stone with Tuscan columns, topped by triangular pediments on the side portals and a broken curved pediment on the taller central portal, above which is a window with a curved pediment bearing the Society's monogram in marble. The three-level main façade is marked by lateral towers at the central body level, crowned by a stone parapet and pinnacles at the corners. It features articulated Mannerist windows in regional stone and niches housing sculptures of the four founders of the Society of Jesus in white marble.

The college's façade facing Praça do Município is austere and unadorned, typical of plain architecture, with asymmetrical stone-framed windows, one of which is mullioned, and two Mannerist access doors, the higher of which once had a canopy that disappeared in the late 19th century.

The tower, with its robust military appearance and exposed stone corners, is still covered by a ribbed vault, following 16th-century construction and aesthetic principles.

Due to the monumental scale of the project, the church was only completed in the early 18th century, just before the Society of Jesus was dissolved by the Marquis of Pombal.

The interior reflects Baroque influences, evident in its monumental gilded altarpieces, sculptures, frescoes, tiles, and paintings—a total work of art, as Baroque theorists described it, designed to persuade and stir the emotions of the faithful. In addition to the finely crafted gilded altarpieces, the trompe-l'oeil ceiling is particularly noteworthy.

The sacristy, the most remarkable in Madeira's churches, features marble-inlaid cabinets and a monumental Baroque jacaranda wood armoire, topped with paintings of the Society's principal saints, and a ceiling adorned with grotesque paintings.

Until the 20th century, this imposing building was the largest structure on the island.