Berlitz Pocket Guide Madeira (Travel Guide eBook)

by Berlitz Publishing Company

Palheiro cottages These traditional thatched cottages are still in use in the Santana region.

São Vicente One of Madeira’s most attractive villages, with volcanic caves nearby.

the islands were known to Roman and Carthaginian sailors 2,000 years ago, Madeira was first settled only a few decades before Columbus made his way to America.

Madeira is nearer to Africa than to Lisbon. It lies 600km (372 miles) off the coast of Morocco and nearly 1,000km (620 miles) southwest of the Portuguese capital.

Christopher Columbus visited Porto Santo in the second half of the 15th century, and married the local governor’s granddaughter.

temperatures that average 22°C (72°F) in the summer and 17°C (63°F) during the winter.

Madeira seems much larger than its diminutive size, just 57km (35 miles) long and 22km (13 miles) wide.

The populace is a stew of dark North African complexions and blonde, blue-eyed northern Europeans.

aside from the occasional goat and rabbit, the most notable land creature is a large, poisonous black spider.

South-east islands

Dolphins and turtles are occasionally spotted, and there is a colony of very rare monk seals.

Meanwhile, the two Selvagens Islands, usually known as Grande (Large) and Pequena (Small), are Madeiran only in name. They lie 285km (177 miles) to the south and are actually closer to the Canary Islands than to Madeira. Like the Desertas, they are uninhabited and devoted entirely to nature conservation.

there are parts of town where the noise and traffic don’t seem so far removed from the places most people come here to avoid.

Almost half of Madeira’s 270,000-strong population live in Funchal

Small-scale agriculture dominates the island’s landscape, and employs about a fifth of its people.

Madeira is even better when explored on two feet. The island is heaven for anyone who enjoys being outside, whether your taste tends to gentle walks or hardcore hiking.

Some of the mountain villages of Madeira are so isolated that they did not begin to receive TV signals until the 1980s.

Lack of sand has kept Madeira from becoming as popular as the Canary Islands or Mallorca. If Madeira had sandy beaches and cheap flights from Europe and North America, it would surely not have managed to preserve as much of its environment as it has.

The typical visitor is still older and wealthier than in most holiday destinations, but times have changed – as they have across Portugal, which is no longer the forgotten backwater of Europe.

Madeirans, like most Portuguese, are a generally quiet and reserved people. Add to this geographical isolation and the difficulties for most of a harsh agricultural existence and you might well forgive the islanders if they seemed less than welcoming.

in 1418 he happened upon a small volcanic archipelago 1,000km (620 miles) from Lisbon. Perhaps Zarco knew precisely where he was heading, having learned of the existence of Madeira from a Castilian source.

Some say that the first man to set foot on the island was not the Portuguese adventurer João Gonçalves Zarco but a 14th-century Englishman named Robert Machim (sometimes written Machin).

The couple’s resting place is said to be beneath the Capela dos Milagres on the eastern side of Machico

They officially became the first men to set foot on the heavily forested island, naming it Ilha da Madeira – Island of Timber.

In 1425, King João I pronounced Madeira an official province of Portugal, and presented it as a gift to Prince Henry (Henrique). He, in turn, confirmed the land ownership rights to Zarco and Teixeira, while Perestrelo was awarded Porto Santo.

they set about clearing the land for agriculture, setting fire to tracts of forest. Legend says that a great fire burned for seven years on the island.

It seems certain that Madeira had never been inhabited before the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century. The first settlers found no Stone Age natives, as the Spanish had found in the Canary Islands, and no mysterious monuments to the past, as in the Balearics.

The levadas were largely built by slave labourers from Africa, whose primary employment was on sugar plantations.

Even today, there are those on Porto Santo who will tell you that it was during the time he spent there that Columbus learned navigation techniques, and found the inspiration to undertake his voyage of 1492.

From early in the 16th century, Madeira became the target of pirate attacks.

In 1566 Madeira suffered its worst disaster when the French pirate Bertrand de Montluc sailed into Funchal harbour with his 11-galleon armada and 1,300 men. He unleashed a 16-day reign of terror that left 300 Madeirans dead, stocks of sugar destroyed and the island plundered.

an invasion of even greater significance ensued in 1580, when Felipe II of Spain proclaimed himself king of Portugal and marched his armies across the border. The Spanish remained for another 60 years, during which time Madeira was a Spanish territory.

The notorious English pirate Captain Kidd was hanged in London after terrorising the high seas for almost 10 years – but the loot he amassed was never found. Legend has it that his treasure is buried somewhere on the Ilhas Desertas, southeast of Madeira, although all searches so far have been fruitless.

Wine profits were huge, and by 1800 exports had reached 9-million bottles per year.

Madeira, with its long tradition of hospitality, has welcomed many notable voyagers, including, in 1815, the defeated Napoleon Bonaparte.

In 1852 the island’s precious vines were blighted by mildew, wiping out an estimated 90 percent of the total crop.

Just four years later, cholera claimed the lives of up to 7,000 Madeirans, and in 1872–3 the dreaded phylloxera louse destroyed the remainder of the vineyards. Potato and sugar crops were also badly affected.

1916 a German submarine bombarded Funchal harbour and sank three French ships.

for the first time Madeira was allowed to elect five members to the parliament in Lisbon.

1976

In 1986 Portugal joined the European Economic Community (now the European Union). Generous funding from the EU has been invested in the island’s fishing industry and infrastructure, such as roads, tunnels, marinas, leisure complexes and an expanded Funchal airport.

some argue the island has gone from underdevelopment to overdevelopment, and in 2012, the tiny island found itself a startling €6 billion in debt (reduced to €4.5 billion in 2015).

in 2016 the island was ravaged by wildfires that caused widespread devastation. Following the worst summer heatwave in history, flames destroyed 22 percent of Funchal. Hundreds were forced to abandon their homes and three people were killed.

2016 wildfires

Bananas replace wine as the island’s main cash crop.

1960 Madeira’s first airport, on Porto Santo.

2006 New theme parks and cable cars open around the island.

2015 Miguel Albuquerque becomes the new president of Madeira; Madeira wins title of the World’s Leading Island Destination.

it is possible to speed from Funchal to once-remote Porto Moniz in under an hour. But to do so means travelling mainly in tunnels. For a taste of the island’s beautiful scenery, there is no alternative but to take to Madeira’s mountainous terrain and winding, two-lane roads.

travelling by car should only be undertaken by confident drivers who are comfortable negotiating steep, winding terrain.

you can walk across the centre in just 10 to 15 minutes.

Exploring inland to the north is difficult on foot,

walking remains the only practical way t...