Casa-Museu Frederico de Freitas

The Casa-Museu Frederico de Freitas is a house museum at Calçada de Santa Clara 7, beside the Convento de Santa Clara in Funchal, on the island of Madeira in Portugal. It occupies an 17th-century town mansion and a neighbouring building that together hold the collections assembled by Frederico de Freitas, a Funchal lawyer and passionate collector who lived from 1902 to 1977. He bequeathed his house and holdings to the region, and they became a public museum devoted to the decorative arts and the domestic life of Madeira's educated elite. The collection is wide-ranging. Its centrepiece is a large group of Portuguese tiles, or azulejos, covering several centuries, which show how patterns and techniques changed from the 16th to the 19th century. Alongside them are furniture in Portuguese, English and Indo-Portuguese styles, ceramics, glass, silver, jewellery, paintings, and religious sculpture. Notable also are items of folk art and everyday objects from Madeira, such as embroidery and wickerwork, which show the vernacular culture of the island next to its aristocratic taste. The rooms are arranged largely as a collector's house, with objects grouped by type or atmosphere rather than a strict chronology, so visitors move through a series of rich domestic interiors. The architecture of the mansion, with its stonework, staircases and decorated ceilings, forms part of the display. Conservation of the collection has been the task of regional heritage authorities, and the museum is maintained as part of the island's network of museums. Admission is paid, and current prices and opening times should be confirmed on the Funchal tourism site at visit.funchal.pt. A visit generally takes 45 to 60 minutes. The museum stands next to the Convento de Santa Clara and a few minutes from the Quinta das Cruzes, so these three sites are often combined on a morning walk through the Santa Clara district.