Fernão Manuel de Ornelas Gonçalves (n. Funchal, 06/14/1908; f. Lisbon, 05/24/1978), lawyer and Madeiran politician, son of the doctor Fernão de Sousa Gonçalves (1882-1919). 
Graduated with distinction from the College of Law of Lisbon in 1931, he was appointed Attorney subdelegate of the Republic in 1932 and head of the Judiciary secretariat in 1935. 
At the age of 27, he assumed the presidency of Funchal’s City Hall, which he led with great competence, in the 12 years that his term lasted. He was a visionary, with great capacity for decision, whose determination transformed a city that was stuck in time, into an example of modernity and progress, repositioning it in the standards of the 20th century. It promoted a new urban layout, with more accessibility and greater aesthetics, with important works such as the paving of Funchal, the remodeling of “Avenida do Mar” and the streets “5 de Outubro” and “31 de Janeiro”, and with the design of new accesses such as “Arriaga” and “Infante” avenues, and the street that bears his name, an important access to the “Mercado dos Lavradores” (also his work), which created a new commercial pole, still prominent today. With his brilliant management, he solved longstanding problems such as basic sanitation and drinking water supply, and innovated with the distribution of electric light, the installation of telephone and light signaling cables, also building the slaughterhouse and the jail. It promoted culture (with literary prizes and publication of books), schooling (with the construction of primary schools) and new mentalities (with the creation of various attitudes that demanded changes in behavior from residents). It also mitigated the problem of misery with the construction of several economic districts and the building of the Economic Soup, as well as with the job it generated by promoting so much work. Despite being accused of excessive expenses, he maintained an unusual budget balance for the time, and regularized situations inherited from previous management.
He did work, but also enemies, which cost him the job he was doing so well, particularly due to the action of the civil governor of that time, Daniel Vieira Barbosa, to whom the disagreements he had with several influential families, due to the rates it imposed on commerce and the expropriations that the modernization of the city implied.
He was also an attorney at the Corporate Chamber, Director of “Banco da Madeira”, member of the Board of Directors of “Caixa Geral de Depósitos”, “Crédito e Previdência”, and administrator at “Hidrotécnica do Cávado” and “Banco Pinto & Souto Maior”. He was awarded the Commendations of the Military Order of Christ and of the Official of the Order of “Cruzeiro do Sul” (Brazil). Received posthumously (2008), the Medal of Honor of the City of Funchal.

Credits: Museu de Fotografia da Madeira - Atelier Vicente's.

PHOTOGRAPHIA VICENTE | Fernão de Ornelas Gonçalves's picture
MFM-AV, Inv. VIC / 2600