Machico (health resort)
Original title: Machico (Estação sanitária de)
Describes Machico as a health and summer resort, praising its mild climate, bathing beach, the therapeutic waters of São Roque and nearby excursions; the Elucidário ranks it second only to Porto Santo among the archipelago's health resorts.
Besides the special conditions that make it a favourite place to spend the summer season, this locality should also be regarded as an excellent health resort. The mildness of a cool, temperate climate, the fine bathing beach and the much-praised São Roque waters (águas de São Roque), with their well-known therapeutic properties, commend it as the most valuable health resort in the archipelago after Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’). Further attractions are the natural beauty of the lovely valley in which the picturesque town (vila) lies; the ease of making short excursions to the charming settlement of Santa Cruz (‘Holy Cross’) and the delightful parish (freguesia) of Santo da Serra (‘the saint of the uplands’); boat trips to Caniçal, Prainha and Ponta de São Lourenço; a comfortable hotel open all year; houses to let; and rapid, frequent communications with the city of Funchal, etc. etc.
In this article
Place
Places mentioned · 09
- Caniçal
Machico. Destination for boat trips from Machico.
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.
- Funchal
The city with which Machico had rapid and frequent communications.
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.
- Machico
The town described as an excellent health and summer resort.
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.
- Ponta de São Lourenço
Machico. Eastern headland reached by boat trips from Machico.
The Ponta de São Lourenço is the long, narrow eastern headland of Madeira in the parish of Caniçal, said to be named after the caravel São Lourenço, with a lighthouse on its islet. The Elucidário describes its geology, seasonal vegetation, islets, fossil calcareous bodies at Piedade, land snails and use as pasture. The steamer Forerunner sank there in 1884, and a submarine bank lies between it and the Desertas.
- Porto Santo
Considered the archipelago's foremost health resort, ahead of Machico.
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.
- Prainha
Machico. Beach reached by boat trips from Machico.
Small beach at the head of a picturesque cove in Caniçal parish, the only sandy beach on Madeira, all others being of pebbles. It is popular with summer holidaymakers, who reach it by boat trips from Machico.
- Santa Cruz
Nearby town suggested for short excursions from Machico.
Santa Cruz is a parish and one of Madeira's oldest settlements, named after a cross Zarco had raised there at the discovery. The Elucidário covers its early ecclesiastical history, collegiate church, chapels, noble settlers and localities.
- Santo da Serra
Machico. Parish suggested for short excursions from Machico.
Santo da Serra is an upland parish of Madeira, in the municipality of Machico and partly within Santa Cruz; some of its localities passed to Santa Cruz in 1852. The Elucidário records its crater lagoon (the Lagoa), Burnay's dairy of 1895, a mid-altitude agricultural experimental station and a meteorological post, and notes that it was a centre of Protestant converts. It was also a resort linked to Poiso by a motor road.
- Waters of São Roque
Santana · Machico. Mineral waters with reputed therapeutic virtues that recommend Machico as a resort.
Mineral waters with reputed therapeutic virtues that recommend Machico as a resort.