Girão (cape)

Some have remarked how inappropriate it is to use the word ‘cape’ (cabo) for this towering cliff, which drops sheer into the ocean. Looking at the map of this island, we can make out no projection or tongue of land there that would justify the name, and this becomes still clearer when one travels along the coast, or even when one takes in the cliff along its greatest extent from its highest and most prominent point. Frutuoso seems to give it the name cabo to signify the end (termo) of the first stage of the original maritime exploration, and the name Girão because the circuit (giro) of the first day of that same exploration ended there. To justify the name cabo further, the chronicler refers to a point that the cliff formed below, a point that almost escapes the observer’s notice and can in no way deserve the name of cape. The Saudades say: ‘…they saw a very high cliff close by, and the sea breaking upon a point which it formed below, which became for them the goal and end of their discovery, and they gave it the name of Cabo de Gyrão, because it was on that occasion the last part and end [cabo] of the circuit [gyro] of their course’.

As a cliff overlooking the sea, several authors state that it is among the highest and sheerest to be found anywhere in the world. From some of the highest and most prominent points of that gigantic escarpment, one sees the ocean waves breaking at the foot of the sheer cliff some 600 metres below. That is why countless Portuguese and foreign works contain frequent references to the cliffs of Cabo Girão, which amply reward the scholar and the tourist with a subject for close and lengthy observation. Access to the highest points of the cliff is neither easy nor comfortable, for want of a good road leading there. A branch road 800 metres long is planned, to link these points with the national road that crosses the parishes of Quinta Grande (‘large estate’) and Campanário (‘bell tower’). (1921)

Around 1935 or shortly afterwards, the road was connected to the top of the cliff of Cabo Girão, and a fine viewpoint was built there, which has been widely visited by Portuguese and foreigners alike. From this spot a vast and astonishing panorama unfolds, in which the enraptured eye ranges from the beautiful amphitheatre of Funchal to the parishes of the municipality (concelho) of Ponta do Sol (‘point of the sun’).

In the report of a former director of district public works in Madeira we came across a curious account of this well-known point on our coast. We transcribe part of it here, for the interest it may perhaps hold for some of our readers.

“

At Cabo Girão there is a sheer drop to the sea of 633 metres, a magnificent height not easily found anywhere else on the globe. While surveying the royal road from Funchal to São Vicente, I passed along the top of Cabo Girão and confirmed by levelling that this altitude was true. I wanted to experience the impression I would feel on contemplating the spectacle of so great a height, for I had heard it said, with astonishment, that English tourists would sit there on a projection of the ground, dangling their legs over the abyss. I timidly approached the edge of the cliff and noticed that the sight of such a height made no impression on me at all! The reason was simple: below lay the sea… the sea stretching as far as the eye could see, an immense plain without a single point of reference to make me aware of the great height at which I stood. My fellow workers doubted that the height could be so great, when a chance occurrence allowed me to prove to them that I had not misled them. Directly below that height, down on the sea, was a boat fishing close to the shore. The boat could be seen, very small and completely empty. I had found a point of reference. In the boat there were men who could not be seen, because at a vertical distance of 633 metres it is difficult, if not impossible, to see with the naked eye the horizontal projection of a man, which is little more than the surface of a hat…’.