Levada de Santa Luzia (road)
Original title: Levada de Santa Luzia (Estrada da)
A level road bounding the northern edge of part of Funchal, running from near the Santa Luzia stream to the Avenida Pedro José de Ornelas and flanked by the Santa Luzia levada, one of the oldest on the island. It offers fine views and passes several quintas, notably the Quinta da Palmeira.
A long, level road that bounds part of the city of Funchal to the north and runs from near the Ribeira de Santa Luzia (‘St Lucy’) to the Avenida Pedro José de Ornelas, beside the Rocha da Pena (‘crag’). It is flanked by the levada (irrigation channel) of the same name, which already existed in 1515 and is one of the oldest on the island.
The whole length of the Levada de Santa Luzia road offers lovely views, with fine buildings and several quintas along it. Outstanding among them is the Quinta da Palmeira, one of the most beautiful in the environs of Funchal. Its owner is the benevolent industrialist and British subject Henrique Hinton, who had the window of the famous house in which Christopher Columbus lived in Funchal set up there (see vol. 1, p. 289).
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Years mentioned · 01Place
Places mentioned · 07- Levada de Santa Luzia · Subject
Funchal. Levada flanking the road, already existing in 1515.
The Levada de Santa Luzia is the oldest and most important private levada on Madeira, rising in the basin of the Santa Luzia stream and protected by a royal charter of 1515. In the 16th century it irrigated canefields; it crosses much of Santa Luzia parish, marking its northern limit, and is flanked by a road with views and quintas. Its commission disputed the Tornos springs with the Câmara, and a reservoir was built there in 1934.
- Estrada da Levada de Santa Luzia · Subject
Funchal
The Estrada da Levada de Santa Luzia is a level road in Santa Luzia, Funchal, running from near the Santa Luzia stream to the Avenida Pedro José de Ornelas beside the Santa Luzia levada, one of the oldest on the island. It formed part of the northern city limits in 1909 and 1927. It offers fine views and passes several quintas, including giving access to the Quinta da Palmeira.
- Avenida Pedro José de Ornelas
Funchal. Avenue where the road ends.
Avenida Pedro José de Ornelas is an avenue in Funchal, the modern name of the road once called Caminho da Pena, extended by the motor road to Monte. It marked the fourth vertex of the city's 1909 boundary perimeter.
- Funchal
The city whose northern edge the road bounds.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Quinta da Palmeira
Funchal. One of the finest quintas near Funchal, on the road.
Fine estate near Funchal, on the Levada de Santa Luzia road, owned by the industrialist Henrique Hinton and noted for its vegetation. In 1940 its garden preserved the window from the house where Christopher Columbus is said to have lived. It also served as an episcopal residence with a recently built chapel, and its owner gave visiting aviators a lunch there; a dragon tree at its entrance was uprooted.
- Ribeira de Santa Luzia
Funchal. Stream near which the road begins.
The Ribeira de Santa Luzia is one of the three streams crossing Funchal, named after a chapel of Santa Luzia on its left bank. Its banks were probably the first land irrigated by levadas and had four sugar mills in the late 17th century. It feeds the Santa Luzia, Moinhos and D. Isabel levadas, and the Jesuits' Fundoa residence stood on its right bank.
People
People mentioned · 03-
The navigator Christopher Columbus, whose former Funchal house supplied the window placed at the Quinta da Palmeira.
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British industrialist and benefactor, owner of the Quinta da Palmeira, where he installed the window of the house in which Columbus lived in Funchal.
- Pedro José de Ornelas1818–1878
Person after whom the avenue at the eastern end of the road is named.