It's no joke meeting real sea pirates. They have terrorized the coastal areas of many countries for centuries. In 1566, 11 ships led by Bertrand de Montluc sailed to Funchal. This expedition ended with almost fifteen hundred pirates looting the city for two weeks. A couple of months later, the Jesuit monks sailed to the island to comfort the suffering people with the word of God. They liked the island so much that they decided to stay, asking Rome for permission to buy land and build a church. The Jesuits are one of the Catholic orders, known for their devout faith, strict discipline, and exceptional education. Therefore, along with the church, the monks built an educational institution in Funchal. The church was named after St. John the Evangelist. Its construction lasted almost a hundred years, and another couple of decades were spent on painting and decorating the interior. The church turned out to have a modest, even austere Mannerist facade and a rich interior, just like a precious box. It also symbolizes the essence of the Jesuit – an ascetic appearance and a rich inner world.

The church was built according to the Catholic rules of those days: one main nave (gallery), a chapel (a place for a high altar and storage of relics), and a transept (longitudinal and transverse naves form a visual cross under the highest point of the dome). The interior of the church is as rich as a real museum. The walls are decorated with biblical paintings in gilded frames and the traditional Portuguese azulejo tiles (blue and white ceramic panels) below them. The arched vaults are adorned with paintings and decorative plaster. The niches are occupied by the statues, including one of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order. The church has an organ, and sometimes it hosts evening concerts.

During a guided tour, you can climb to the church roof. The Jesuit church college has been functioning since the 17th century. But it had to stop for 200 years after the order had been banned (due to the great discrepancy between politics and monarchy in Europe).