WELCOME to -
Madeira Island,
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I
sland
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This pearl of the Atlantic is
a safe haven from today's
T
he
T
he
modern society and just a
short travelling distance
from most European major
Pico Ruivo - 1862 metres
cities.
Plutarch (Sertorius, 75 AD) referring to the military commander Quintus
Sertorius (d. 72 BC), relates that after his return to Cadiz, "he met seamen
recently arrived from Atlantic islands, two in number, divided from one
another only by a narrow channel and distant from the coast of Africa
10,000 furlongs. They are called Isles of the Blest." The estimated distance
from Africa, and the closeness of the two islands, seem to indicate Madeira
and Porto Santo.
There is a romantic tale about two lovers, Robert Machim and Anna d'Arfet
in time of the King Edward III of England, fleeing from England to France in
1346, were driven off their course by a violent storm, and cast on the coast
of Madeira at the place subsequently named Machico, in memory of one of
them.
Funchal City Hall
Camara de Lobos
“The sea on one side, the
mountains on the other,
and between these two
majestic splendours, the
city smiles like a child
sleeping, safe and warm,
between its parents.”
- Júlio Dinis
In 1419 two captains of Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco
and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were driven by a storm to the island they named
Porto Santo. They gave this name (meaning Holy Harbour) in gratitude for
their rescue from shipwreck. The next year an expedition was sent to
populate the island, in which the two captains, together with captain
Bartolomeu Perestrello, took possession of the islands on behalf of the
Portuguese crown.
The islands started to be settled circa 1420 or 1425. In September 23, 1433,
the name Ilha da Madeira (Madeira Island or "island of the wood") appears in
a map, by the first time, in a document.
Funchal Botanical Gardens
‘With Pestana, your well-being is our priority’
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