Facho (peak)
Original title: Facho (Pico do)
A 330 m peak overlooking Machico, once the site of a semaphore station, with a spring said to rise and fall with the tide.
This mountain rises above the town (vila) of Machico at an altitude of 330 m. Its summit overlooks the land that forms the parish (freguesia) of Caniçal (‘reed bed’) and the beautiful valley through which that town’s stream flows. There was once a semaphore station here, which communicated with another set up on the so-called Pico do Telégrafo (‘telegraph peak’), in the parish of Caniço (‘reed’).
It is said in some quarters that at the top of the Pico (‘peak’) there is a small spring whose waters rise when the tide rises and fall when it falls. This phenomenon seems to be due to an internal channel between the spring’s reservoir and the coast, into which the sea penetrates further as the tide rises. It is probably the air in this channel, flowing into the spring’s reservoir, that causes the rise in water level observed at high tide on the coast of Machico (see Picos).
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Place
Places mentioned · 06- Pico do Facho · Subject
Machico
This Pico do Facho is a 330 m peak overlooking Machico. It was once the site of a semaphore station and has a spring said to rise and fall with the tide.
- Caniçal
Machico. Parish whose lands the summit dominates.
Isolated fishing parish at the eastern tip of Madeira, at the root of Ponta de São Lourenço. It originated as a Moniz entail and João Teixeira's hunting reserve and became a parish around 1561. It holds a Piedade feast with a boat procession and has a fort built after a pirate raid.
- Caniço
Santa Cruz. Parish containing Pico do Telégrafo.
Caniço is a parish in the municipality of Santa Cruz, lying on the boundary between the captaincies of Funchal and Machico. Its early settlers included Gaspar Rego, Vasco Fernandes Rego and Álvaro de Ornelas, whose family founded morgados there; its alcaide and judge were appointed by the Funchal senate. The parish includes the Garajau statue, the Jesuits' Socorro residence and the Quinta do Barão da Conceição.
- Machico
Town overlooked by the peak.
The parish of Machico was the landing place of the discoverers Zargo and Tristão Vaz and the seat of the captaincy of Machico; the parish was founded c. 1450. The Elucidário covers its clergy and stipends, chapels, historical events, mineral springs, localities, population and notable natives.
- Pico do Telégrafo
Santa Cruz. Site of the semaphore station that communicated with the one on this peak.
Pico do Telégrafo is a viewpoint at Barreiros in Caniço from which Porto Santo can be seen on clear days. It communicated with the semaphore station on Pico do Facho.
- Ribeira de Machico
Machico. Stream flowing through the valley below the peak.
Stream rising at Lamaceiros and the Portela do Porto da Cruz, flowing through a green valley and dividing the town of Machico into two quarters before reaching the bay. Its coastal lands were among the earliest irrigated, and it was the seat of Pedro Vieira's entailed estate.