Areeiro

Not far from the well-known locality (sítio) of Poiso (‘resting place’), but already within the mountains of the island’s interior, stands the Pico do Areeiro (‘sand-pit peak’), which reaches an altitude of very nearly 1,800 metres above sea level.

Meteorological and climatological studies had not yet reached the level of development of our own time when, half a century ago, the idea arose here in Madeira of setting up one or more weather stations on the highest points of our mountains. Their observations, combined with those of the Funchal Meteorological Station (Posto Meteorológico do Funchal), would provide valuable material for the study of the Madeiran climate, and especially for comparing the climate of our island with that of other renowned health resorts.

In 1895 the central government had some houses built on the slopes of the Pico do Areeiro to accommodate a weather station and to serve as the residence of its staff. About five contos de réis (conto (one million réis)) were spent on them, and the upkeep of the buildings was entrusted to the district Public Works Department (Direcção das Obras Públicas). When the Agricultural Board (Junta Agrícola) was created in 1911, the Areeiro (‘sand pit’) Meteorological Station passed to this administrative body. In 1919 it came into the possession of the District General Council (Junta Geral do Distrito), when the Agricultural Board was abolished, leaving a sorry memory in the pages of Madeiran history.

Once those buildings were finished, however, what many had already predicted came to pass: the station had not been supplied with the essential instruments, and the staff needed to run it properly had never been appointed. Exposed to every kind of weather and to the frequent gales that sweep the area in winter, the building soon began to suffer extensive damage and quickly fell into an advanced state of ruin. The vandalism of the woodcutter and the cattle-herder completed the destruction that the storms had begun, and the supervising authorities made no beneficial effort to put an end to such criminal neglect. Thus the former Public Works Directorate (Direcção das Obras Públicas), the Agricultural Board and the District General Council not only always showed the utmost indifference to the operation of the Meteorological Station created by the government of mainland Portugal, but also allowed the buildings erected for that purpose on one of the slopes of Pico do Areeiro to collapse and disappear.

Neither the protests of the press nor even the good offices of certain official bodies could save them. The matter became the subject of bitter irony in various foreign publications, notably a scientific journal in Middelburg, which remarked that more attention was paid to the study of meteorology in Turkey than in Portugal, since there was no record there of observatories without instruments or observers, as was the case in the Portuguese possession of the island of Madeira.

The distinguished Madeiran Guilherme Teles de Menezes, who for health reasons lived for some months in 1894 and 1895 in the localities (sítios) of Poiso and Areeiro, made a number of meteorological observations there. These were published in the press and received the most complimentary remarks from people versed in the subject.