Museu Carlos Machado Sacred Arts Center

The museum has three sites, and this was the second one we visited.

It is the former College Church of the Jesuits. In the 16th century, the Society of Jesus expanded to the Azores. The Church of the Jesuit’s College of Ponta Delgada, first stone was laid on November 1st, 1592, It is of Baroque style, with exuberant decorative elements in its façade, made of volcanic stone, but also in the carving of the altarpiece and in the tile panels from the 17th century. After the Jesuits expulsion 150 years after its founding, this church and valuable artistic estate, was deprived of much of its religious items and tools, which either disappeared or were integrated in other temples on the island. In 1834, the church was acquired from the State, by Nicolau Maria Raposo de Amaral, owner of the Jesuit’s College, by paternal inheritance. After 139 years, his descendants and heirs donated the Church, to the City Council of Ponta Delgada, which decided to give the space to the Regional Government of the Azores, in 1977, for the Sacred Art Center of the Carlos Machado Museum, approved in 2004. It is the largest carved alter piece in Portugal, unfinished and one notes that like other similar churches in the city we visited, it would have likely been finished with gold paint.Read more