Aqueduto de Machico

Classified a Monument of Municipal Interest, the nineteenth-century aqueduct runs between Caminho do Engenho and Rua da Estacada. It carried water to Machico's old sugar-cane mill — since the sixteenth century the island had been one of the great producers of sugar, the 'white gold'. Of the original fourteen arches, eight survive, in red Caniçal stonework, with spans of 4.40 m, leaning on the retaining wall of Ribeira de Machico. The masonry is rustic basalt rendered in lime mortar; the channel, the levada, is stone and lime. The structure became a museum in 2001, to a conservation design by the architect Victor Mestre.