Church of São Mateus da Calheta (Old)

Church of São Mateus da Calheta (Igreja de São Mateus da Calheta)
Church of Saint Mathew
Church (Igreja)
Front facade of the old church of São Mateus da Calheta
Official name: Igreja Velha de São Mateus da Calheta
Named for: Matthew the Apostle
Nickname: Igreja Velha
Country	Portugal
Autonomous region	Azores
Group	Central
Island	Terceira
Municipality	Angra do Heroísmo
Location	São Mateus da Calheta
- elevation	6 m (20 ft)
- coordinates	38°39′11.88″N 27°16′32.07″W / 38.6533000°N 27.2755750°W / 38.6533000; -27.2755750Coordinates: 38°39′11.88″N 27°16′32.07″W / 38.6533000°N 27.2755750°W / 38.6533000; -27.2755750
Length	11.65 m (38 ft), West-East
Width	27.13 m (89 ft), North-South
Architects	unknown
Style	Medieval
Materials	Basalt, Wood, Tile
Origin	6 February 1557
- Initiated	1694
- Completion	1700
Abandoned	1893
Owner	Portuguese Republic
For public	Public
Management	Direção Regional de Cultura
Operator	Junta de Freguesia de São Mateus da Calheta
Status	Unclassified
Location of the fort within the municipality of Angra do Heroísmo

The (Old) Church of São Mateus da Calheta (Portuguese: Igreja Velha de São Mateus da Calheta) are the ruins of a 16th-century church situated along the coast of the civil parish of São Mateus da Calheta, municipality of Angra do Heroísmo, on the Portuguese island of Terceira, in the archipelago of the Azores. Reconstructed at the end of the 17th, or beginning of the 18th, century, the church was abandoned after a hurricane caused severe damage. The interior includes a baptismal font dating to the 16th century, although largely an open air ruin; the structure has experienced several interventions throughout the centuries, with the building painted and maintained in its post-hurricane state.

The primitive parochial church of São Mateus was erected at the edge of São Mateus da Calheta sometime before 1557, in order to substitute the hermitage of Nossa Senhora da Luz, to support local veneration. From the beginning the temple was small and too close to the sea, located along the coast overlooking the rocky ocean cliffs. Due to its proximity to the sea, it was usually seen by the fishing boats that plied the coast, and normally the first that visiting ships spotted travelling from the Americas. The first reference to the temple occurred on 6 February 1557, in the testament of Pedro Cota da Malha (who revealed that it remained unfinished). As he requested: We order and request that our remains of either, at the cost of heritage, be used to complete the church of the apostle Saint Mathew of Calheta.

From the writings of Lieutenant Colonel José Agostinho, around 1560, the settlement was elevated to ecclesiastical parish, an area that extended along Canada da Cruz Dourada and Canada do Capitão-mor, with the church at center. A reference document was also issued in 1568 for the parish of São Mateus da Prainha.

An account of the Castilian invasion of Terceira in 1611 identified the Baía das Mós, the island's subsequent occupation and the existence of a community just below the parish of São Bartolomeu: " near the city, is another of the apostle of Saint Mathew, along the sea". In 1640, during the first half of the decade, from the writings of Friar Diogo das Chagas identified the church, "...along the sea, in good cultivatable lands, that are not large owing to the rocky ground surrounding it, is the authority and parish of the glorious apostle of Saint Mathew, which is on this located a musket's distance from the coast, and where from hear until the city, just vineyards, of which there are several good estates and authorized hermitages".