Funchal Old Town Guided Walking Tour Madeira

The Jesuits' College and the Church of the College

The walk begins at the Colégio dos Jesuítas, founded in the late sixteenth century by royal decree as the island's first great school. Its long façade on Praça do Município hides cloisters and courtyards that now house the rectory of the University of Madeira, and entrance to the college is included on this tour, a part of the building most visitors never see.

Next door, the Church of the College, the Igreja do Colégio, has a sober stone façade with statues of Jesuit saints, but inside it glows with gilded carved woodwork and blue-and-white tile panels from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The tour returns here at the end for a visit to the church, so you finish the Funchal walking tour where it began, in the heart of the old city.

Funchal City Hall and a 19th-century sweet factory

Across the square, Funchal City Hall occupies an eighteenth-century aristocratic palace, its façade reflected in the black-and-white mosaic paving typical of Madeiran squares. Your guide takes you to a hidden corner inside, then explains how the city, named after the wild fennel, funcho, that once covered its slopes, grew from a fifteenth-century settlement into the capital of the island.

A few lanes away you step into a traditional sweet factory founded in the late nineteenth century and still baking in the old way. This is the place to discover bolo de mel, Madeira's dark, spiced honey cake made with sugarcane molasses, and the crunchy biscuits that islanders have eaten for generations. It is a small, fragrant stop that brings the island's sugar history to the present.

The Farmers' Market, Mercado dos Lavradores

Along one of Funchal's busiest shopping streets, where the guide tells the story of Madeira embroidery, an industry that once employed thousands of island women, you reach the Mercado dos Lavradores. Opened in 1940, the market is an Art Deco building whose entrance is decorated with hand-painted tile panels showing country people in traditional dress.

Inside, the upper galleries overflow with exotic fruit such as passion fruit varieties, custard apples and the long monstera fruit, alongside flowers and vegetables brought from the mountain villages. Downstairs, the fish hall displays tuna and the black scabbardfish, espada, caught at great depth off the island. It is one of the most lively things to do in Funchal, and the guided visit explains what to taste and how to buy.

Rua de Santa Maria and the old fortress

From the market the route enters the Zona Velha, the old town, along Rua de Santa Maria, the oldest street in Funchal, laid out in the fifteenth century. Today its many doors are painted by local artists as part of an open-air art project, and the narrow cobbled lane is lined with small restaurants and craft shops.

Near the seafront, the Admiral's Garden surrounds the excavated ruins of an old fortress that once guarded the city. Close by run the walled riverbeds of Funchal's ribeiras, channelled to protect the city from flash floods after devastating storms in the nineteenth century. The guide shows archive images of these streets as they once were, so you can compare the past with what you see today.

Funchal Cathedral, the sugar trade and the Municipal Garden

Madeira's first fortune came from sugar. In the late fifteenth century the island was a leading producer for Europe, and a square in the centre recalls the merchants of that era. The wealth paid for the Sé, Funchal Cathedral, built between about 1493 and 1514 in the Manueline style; in the sixteenth century it was the seat of the largest diocese in the world, stretching across Portugal's overseas territories.

Inside, look up at the carved and inlaid ceiling of native cedar, one of the finest in Portugal. Along the way you pass the Regional Legislative Assembly, housed in the island's old customs building, and the shady Municipal Garden with its tropical trees, before returning to the Jesuits' Church. Funchal Cathedral opening hours are generally daily, with mass times when visits pause.