168 years ago, princess D. Maria Amélia de Bragança (n. Paris, 12/18/1831; f. Funchal, 2/4/1853), daughter of D. Pedro I / Pedro IV of Portugal (1798-1834) Emperor of Brazil, and D. Amélia de Leuchtenberg (1812-1873), died on the Madeira Island. The ill-fated princess contracted tuberculosis at the beginning of 1852, and due to her precarious health, the decision was taken to head to Madeira, at the time known and recommended as a therapeutic destination. She disembarked in Funchal, accompanied by her mother, on August 28, 1852, being received with all the honor, pomp and circumstance, to the delight of the population in general. The commission organized by Civil Governor José Silvestre Ribeiro (1807-1891), included Vicente Gomes da Silva (1827-1906), to handle the reception of her Highnesses who later founded “Photographia Vicente”. The princess, who loved the island, stayed at “Quinta das Angústias” (currently Quinta Vigia), where she died on February 4, 1853. On April 13 of that year, her mother ordered the construction of a hospital in her honor for the treatment of tuberculosis patients, the “Hospício Princesa Dona Maria Amélia”, which initially operated in the house of the “Morgados Aragão”, located at “Rua do Castanheiro”.

The Hospice building was designed by the English architect Edward Buckton Lamb and the work’s direction was under the responsibility of the Madeiran architect João de Freitas Albuquerque, with the first stone being laid on the 3rd anniversary of the death of Princess D. Maria Amélia, on the 4th of February 1856. The official inauguration took place in June 1862, but it had been in operation since February 4 of that year, having received its first patients on that symbolic date. With the death of the Empress D. Amélia in 1873, the legacy passed to her sister D. Josefina, Queen of Sweden and Norway, who created in 1877 the Princess Dona Maria Amélia Foundation, in order to manage the Hospice. Over the years, this institution has created new areas beyond health (an activity that ceased), and an orphanage (1878), an Externate (1937), a Nursery (1964) and an Elderly Home (1982) were installed there. Today, this institution remains under the tutelage of the crown of Sweden, and Her Majesty, Queen Silvia has inaugurated two new buildings: a Nursery, on April 17, 2002 and more recently, on May 2, 2017, an Elderly Home.

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

View of the Princess D. Maria Amélia Hospice from the D. Maria Pia Theater (now Baltazar Dias Municipal Theater) | Between 1887 and 1905
16.3 x 21.3 cm | Simple negative, glass | silver salt gelatin
MFM-AV, Inv. JAS/716
On deposit at ABM