Paper short abstract:

Ceramic artifacts and animal remains discovered in Ponta Delgada allow us to infer about the city’s daily habits and routines.

Paper long abstract:

In August 2014 were held works that forced the opening and removal of lands, in order to install an elevator shaft coupled to the outside of the central nucleus of Carlos Machado Museum, to allow and ensure universal access to the renovated museum space. To fulfill this objective, it was needed to revolve lands from the old quarter of the convent garden, once the museum is housed in a former convent of Poor Clare Sisters. Despite the limited area opened, it was possible to collect a very coherent set of ceramic materials, dated between XVII and XVIII centuries that establish a framework of imports and consumptions that contradict the written documentation usually evoked, as well as complement the established with a more rich and diverse outlook.

Paper short abstract:

An unpublished notebook of small size was discovered contain an account of a trip to the East, reserving some pages regarding navigations scales of the author in Madeira and Canary Islands in 1785.

Paper long abstract:

Friar Bonifácio António de Jesus, whose Christian name should be António Serrão, was born in Pedrogão Grande, in the centre of Portugal in 1760’s, entering in the convent of Our Lady of the Light in 28 February 1783. Then he Does the novitiate in the convent of Our Lady of Victory, in Batalha, where he professed January 6 of 1785. He departed to Lisbon in April and embarked at 30th May towards to The East, destined to Goa, India.

Of the several places that Friar went to and the stories that he lived we will explore the pages that he devoted towards Madeira and Canary Islands, where he stayed in 1785. In those he narrates experiential aspects that, even within a personal perspective, open us the windows of everyday experience. Fears, uses, punishments of runways, music, food, are described in his writings. Compared to the reference travel literature this testimony is poor, reflecting the lack of scholar preparation of the author. In the comparison between his believes and the realities with which he was being confronted, we have the testimony of the common Portuguese that is facing the grandeur of the world, which makes this a unique document.

Paper short abstract:

The Azores, in the 16th and 17th centuries, produced a furniture of excellence, made of local wood, that was only possible due to the geographical location of the islands, between the Old and New World, and the cultural and artistic influences generated by it.

Paper long abstract:

The Azorean furniture of the 16th and 17th centuries reached a moment of singular distinction and development. From boxes, cabinets, tables and other pieces, some with incised decoration and others with sausages, made of "cedro-do-mato", common name that designates the islands endemic botanical species, "Juniperus brevifolia", a tree from the cypress family that produces a reddish wood, stiff and strong with typical odor. The excellence of the design and construction of this furniture can be explained by the syncretism of influences that resulted from the Azores geographical location between the old Europe and the new worlds across the oceans. The islands, and more specifically, the city of Angra, on Terceira Island, acted as hinge point between these two reality, there sojourned the ships returning from the Portuguese and Spanish Indies, on their journey from east to west, towards Lisbon and Seville. There converged people from the kingdom - by them the dual monarchy of Portugal and Spain - occupied in governance and defense of the islands, merchants of several European nations seeking business opportunities and adventurers returning from the Americas, Africa and the East with exotic goods. The models and ideas they came with influenced the seventy-two wood workshops that by then existed in Angra and whose production was exported for Portugal and Spain and many other parts of Europe as the Portuguese historian Gaspar Fructuoso (1522-1591) testifies in his manuscript titled "Saudades da Terra".

Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to present a comparative framework for the upper-class domestic architecture within the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands, in terms of typological, morphological and construction aspects.

Paper long abstract:

Domestic architecture and particularly the Manor houses of the Modern Era in the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands, displays a significant number of familiar characteristics, as well as idiosyncratic differences between the archipelagoes and even within several groups of islands, whose comparative study has never been carried out.

On the one hand, it is clear that belonging to different political entities, the cultural matrices of the respective Iberian countries - Portugal and Spain - are reflected in architectonic typologies. Furthermore, strong commercial activity between the archipelagos and European or Extra-European players leads them to establish privileged contacts with the outside cultural world, which has resulted in different influences. On the other hand, one can not forget that there was a great deal of internal trade, as well as migration of people among the three archipelagos, namely artists and handicraftsmen.

This paper aims to establish a comparative framework for the upper-class domestic architecture within the three archipelagoes, in terms of typological, morphological and construction aspects, taking into account the historical context and the relationships among the archipelagos and with the outside cultural spaces.

Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with the role of foreign influences and local craftsmanship in the sedimentation of an insular identity, by making a preliminary approach to late romanticist patterns of wrought iron and, particularly, cast iron railings and gates in the façades of S. Miguel Island, in the Azores.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper we analyse how foreign influences, combined with local craftsmanship and circumstantial factors, play a very important role in the sedimentation of an insular identity, in terms of architecture. In order to do so, we make a preliminary approach to both cast iron and wrought iron railings and gates, as well as to other similar ornaments existing in the façades of S. Miguel Island, in the Azores, particularly in Ponta Delgada, Ribeira Grande and Lagoa. The analysis ranges from some of the earliest examples to the most interesting examples dating from the beginning of the 20th century. We will emphasize the second half of the 19th century and, particularly, the late romanticist patterns for cast iron balconies, locally produced. We will demonstrate how, in this particular aspect of History of Architecture, islands are, effectively, a privileged study laboratory.