Madeira travel guide

Top 10 sights in Madeira

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1. 

   1© Bjørn Christian Tørrissen · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Cabo Girão

   A sea cliff on the south coast of Madeira, 580 metres high and among the highest in Europe, with a glass-floored skywalk projecting out over the drop. A cable car goes down to the fajã below, where villagers still farm a shelf of land at the foot of the cliff.

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2. 

   2© Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Cathedral of Funchal

   The cathedral of Funchal, built between 1493 and 1514 and one of the few buildings surviving intact from the first decades of Madeira's settlement. Its ceiling is Mudéjar-influenced cedar inlaid with ivory, cut from the island's own laurel forest.

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3. 

   3© Dr. Thomas Liptak · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Madeira Botanical Garden

   A botanical garden opened in 1960 on the estate of the Reid family, who founded the island's famous hotel, on a slope above Funchal. Its terraces of geometric flowerbeds and the endemic Madeiran plant collection are reached by cable car from the town.

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4. 

   4© Abby M. · CC BY-SA 3.0

   CR7 Museum

   A museum in Funchal holding Cristiano Ronaldo's trophies and shirts, opened in 2013 in the city where he was born and moved to the marina in 2016. The much-mocked first bust of him outside stood here before being replaced.

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5. 

   5© <<graham>> · CC BY 2.0

   Cristo Rei

   An Art Deco Christ on the Garajau headland east of Funchal, erected in 1927 — four years before the Rio de Janeiro statue, which it preceded and influenced. A steep path or cable car descends from it to a pebble beach in a marine reserve.

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6. 

   6© 2015 Michael 2015 · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Monte

   The church of Our Lady of the Mount above Funchal, holding the island's patron image, reached by cable car and left by wicker toboggan — sledges steered by men in straw hats down the road to town. Charles I, the last Austrian emperor, died in exile on Madeira and is buried in a side chapel.

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7. 

   7© TeWeBs · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Fortaleza de São Tiago

   A fort of 1614 in the old town of Funchal, painted ochre and facing the sea, built to defend the harbour against corsairs. It now holds exhibition space and a restaurant on the roof.

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8. 

   8© Mattes · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Sacred Art Museum of Funchal

   A museum of sacred art in the bishop's palace, holding Flemish paintings that Madeiran sugar merchants bought in Bruges and Antwerp in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries — sugar was paid for in art. It is one of the best Flemish collections outside northern Europe.

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9. 

   9© Dr. Thomas Liptak · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Igreja de São João Evangelista

   A church in the historic centre of Funchal built by the Jesuits from 1629, whose gilded altars and blue and white azulejos are the finest baroque interior on the island. The adjoining college is now the university.

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10. 

    10© PESP/ Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Convento de Santa Clara

    A convent of Poor Clares founded in the late fifteenth century by the family of João Gonçalves Zarco, the navigator who claimed Madeira for Portugal, to house the daughters of the island nobility. Zarco's descendants are buried inside and nuns still live there.

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1. 

   1© muffinn from Worcester, UK · CC BY 2.0

   Praia Formosa

   A beach west of Funchal, unusually long for Madeira, of mixed pebble and black sand with an artificial sandy section. It is where the city swims in summer and a promenade runs along it.

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2. 

   2© Don Amaro from Madeira Islands, Portugal · CC BY 2.0

   Calheta beach

   A beach at Calheta on the south coast, one of very few sandy beaches on Madeira, made in the 2000s with sand shipped from Morocco and held in place by two breakwaters. The island is volcanic and has almost no natural sand.

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3. 

   3

   São Vicente Caves

   A lava tube at São Vicente formed about 890,000 years ago when a flow of molten rock drained out from under a hardened crust. About seven hundred metres are walkable, and a volcanism centre at the exit explains how the island was built.

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4. 

   4

   Edifício na Rua do Carmo, n.º 33

   A historic building at 33 Rua do Carmo in Funchal, protected as an example of the city's early twentieth-century commercial architecture.

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5. 

   5© Dr. Thomas Liptak · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Santa Catarina Park

   One of the largest parks in Funchal, on the slope above the harbour, with a chapel of the fifteenth century, a lake and a statue of Zarco. It looks straight down onto the cruise berths and the bay.

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6. 

   6© Wilrooij · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Quinta do Arco

   A rose garden on a former estate at Arco de São Jorge on Madeira's north coast, holding over 1,700 varieties. The island's climate keeps something in bloom from April to December, when the garden is open.

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7. 

   7© Nuno Caldeira · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Jewish Cemetery of Funchal

   A Jewish cemetery on Rua do Lazareto in Funchal, established in the nineteenth century by the merchant community, with both Sephardi and Ashkenazi burials. It is largely disused and kept locked.

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8. 

   8© Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Church of St Martin

   The parish church of São Martinho in Funchal, one of the island's older parishes, in the white-walled and red-tiled form typical of Madeiran churches. It stands above the Praia Formosa side of the city.

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9. 

   9© Patrice78500 · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Capela do Corpo Santo

   A fifteenth-century chapel at the seaward end of the old town of Funchal, built by the confraternity of seafarers who worked out of the harbour. Fishermen prayed here before going out and it keeps a painted wooden ceiling.

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10. 

    10© Nuno Capelo Caldeira · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Boca dos Namorados

    A viewpoint at 1,067 metres in Jardim da Serra, Câmara de Lobos, looking down into the Curral das Freiras — the valley where the nuns of Santa Clara hid from pirates in 1566. The south coast and the central peaks are both in view.

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