Castelo (peak)
Original title: Castelo (Pico do)
The Pico do Castelo is the best-known peak of Porto Santo, 440 m high, named after the ruins of an old fort on its crest that sheltered islanders from corsair raids. Its slopes were reforested about thirty years before the entry was written.
This is the best-known height on the island of Porto Santo, not far from the town (vila), and on its crest lie the ruins of an old fort, which gave the peak its name. Its highest point stands 440 metres above sea level, and its slopes are very steep. It therefore served as a safe refuge for the island’s inhabitants when the island was attacked by French and Moroccan corsairs, who frequently laid it waste. Before the fort was built, defence was carried out by means of boulders rolled down the slopes of the peak, which made its summit almost inaccessible. Approximately 30 years ago the District General Council (Junta Geral do Distrito) attempted to afforest the slopes of this peak, with the forestry officer António Schiappa de Azevedo directing the work. Today there is a luxuriant growth of tree species there which, even from the sea and at a great distance, draws the admiration of the observer, in striking contrast to the aridity of the other hills.
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Place
Places mentioned · 03- Pico do Castelo · Subject
Porto Santo
The best-known peak of Porto Santo, given as 440 or 441 m high, named after the ruins of an old fort on its crest. The steep peak served as the islanders' refuge from pirate raids and was fortified in the early 18th century. Its slopes, with trachyte outcrops, were reforested, and a channel was designed to capture their storm runoff.
- Porto Santo
Island on which the Pico do Castelo stands.
An island of the archipelago, settled alongside Madeira and forming one of the three captaincies. It has always constituted a single parish, dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, whose church was repeatedly sacked. The Elucidário records the Moorish pirate raid of 1617, its own Misericórdia and a rainwater channel built on this drought-prone island.
- Vila Baleira
Porto Santo. The island's town, not far from the peak.
Vila Baleira, the town of Porto Santo, lies on one of the island's two small plains, not far from the Pico do Castelo, and its port is about 41 miles from Funchal. It was the capital of the Porto Santo captaincy founded by Bartolomeu Perestrelo, who died there. It contains the Misericórdia chapel and the Fontinha locality, and Noronha made weather observations there in 1900–1902.
People
People mentioned · 01-
Forestry overseer who directed the Junta Geral's reforestation of the Pico do Castelo slopes.