Poiso

About 10 kilometres from the city and roughly seven from the Igreja Paroquial (‘parish church’) of Monte (‘hill’), but within the bounds of the parish (freguesia) of Camacha, stands the finest mountain shelter in our uplands. It is called the Poiso house (Casa do Poiso), because it lies at the well-known locality of the same name. The Poiso (‘resting place’) is a much-travelled spot, since the road that crosses it links Funchal with several parishes in the north of Madeira. As the place is very exposed and subject to frequent gales, the worthy civil governor José Silvestre Ribeiro had a mountain shelter for travellers built here in 1850. It has rendered the most notable services and saved many of those who passed that way from certain death. The old road across this spot, which connects it with the charming and much-visited locality of Ribeiro Frio (‘cold brook’) and several northern parishes, has been considerably improved, and regular motor-car services have been established between Funchal, the Poiso and Ribeiro Frio. There is also a road, already used by motor cars, between the Poiso and the pleasant resort of Santo da Serra (‘the saint of the uplands’), and it is believed that before long it will be possible to reach the parish of Santana (‘St Anne’). The Poiso shelter (Casa de Abrigo do Poiso) is equipped with a telephone booth. We have already given a detailed account of the excellent services it provides, and of its foundation, on p. 195 of vol. I of this work.

Of particular interest on this subject is the article that one of the authors of the Elucidário Madeirense published in the Diário da Madeira (‘Madeira Daily’), which we transcribe below:

“

Anyone who has never crossed the mountains of Madeira in the winter season cannot imagine how intense the cold there is on certain days, or how violently the storms break over that region.

The temperature, which in the city of Funchal seldom falls below 7 degrees, can in some cases drop to 2 and 3 degrees below zero in the mountains. If the Areeiro (‘sand pit’) station had not, to our shame, been left in the most complete neglect, we are convinced that wind speeds of 60 and 70 kilometres an hour would often be recorded there, speeds very rarely observed in the low-lying part of the island.

It is not only hail that often falls in the mountains of Madeira during the winter season; flakes of snow are also sometimes seen in the high regions, and the cold is then extremely intense and hard to bear.

In the Poiso uplands, one of the coldest and most storm-lashed points in the mountains, many people died in former times for lack of shelter and help. The same would still happen today had the benevolent Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) José Silvestre Ribeiro, when civil governor of the district, not sought to remedy so great an evil by having a house built in those uplands, a little beyond the Fonte das Moças, to take in travellers in every season of the year and at any hour of the day or night.

The mountain shelter known as the Poiso shelter was built in 1851, and it has been open ever since to the public passing that way, who find in the building safe refuge from the cold and storms of the mountains.

In an official letter dated 6 October 1851, the late Councillor José Silvestre Ribeiro urged the Municipal Council of Funchal to reach an agreement immediately, without losing a moment, with the Council of Santana on the share each should contribute to the upkeep of a man and his family who would live in the house and take charge of giving travellers whatever help and assistance they needed.

In the same letter the governor further urged that the choice of whoever was to live in the house we refer to and carry out the duties mentioned should be made with the greatest care, so that only a person or family of recognised honesty, capable of grasping the duties incumbent on them in a lugar (settlement ranking between a town and a parish) so lonely and so far from any inhabited place, would be placed there.

We do not know who the first keeper of the Poiso shelter was. What we do know is that the last but one keeper there was dismissed for his slovenliness and lack of care over cleanliness, and that the building then passed under the supervision of Mr Caminata, who has introduced or is about to introduce some improvements of recognised benefit to the public (1921).

Besides the ground floor, which contains the keeper’s rooms, the tavern and a large kitchen, the house has a first floor with three rooms, the one on the south side being quite spacious. In the kitchen there are some plank beds intended for the humble country folk; the first floor generally serves persons of a certain standing who wish to spend the night in the building.

Under the regulations, the keeper must always have bread, wine, spirit (aguardente, distilled from sugar cane or wine) and coffee to supply to travellers. He is also obliged to keep a store of firewood and to give all those in need whatever help he can.

The works on the original Poiso house were contracted for the sum of 1,442,950 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis), but further sums have since been spent on improvements and extensions to the building. As it stands today, it perfectly fulfils the purpose for which it is intended, and could even serve as a forest police station, if there were a will to put an end to the abuses of the woodcutters and charcoal burners who are laying waste to our mountains’ (1921).