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Caniçal

🏘️ Machico · Caniçal · Palmeira

The fishing village of the eastern tip, in the municipality of Machico, beyond the Caniçal tunnel: Madeira's former whaling capital in the 20th century, whose Whale Museum (founded 1989, new premises 2011) keeps the memory with life-size models and 3D films. On the sea side, the 2003 bathing complex, the Ribeira do Natal cove and the coppery-sand Prainha below the Piedade fossil dunes; on the nature side, it is the gateway to Ponta de São Lourenço and its PR 8 trail.

  • Whale Museum
  • Gateway to Ponta de São Lourenço
  • Prainha and Ribeira do Natal
  • Whaling village
GPS
32.73910, -16.73931
🧭 Getting there
The place stands in the locality of Palmeira, parish of Caniçal (Machico).
🅿️ Parking
The nearest car park is Museu da Baleia Parking, 355 m away.
🗺️ See it on the map🧭 Go there
Good to know about Caniçal2

  • The icons — Santana houses, Monte sledges, cable car, Santana Biosphere Reserve (2011)

    Triangular houses of wood and thatch, wicker sledges pushed by two carreiros since the 19th century, an Italian-style theatre of 1888, the country's oldest photo studio (1865), Funchal's museums, Casa das Mudas at Calheta, the Ethnographic Museum at Ribeira Brava, the Whale Museum at Caniçal.

  • Whaling — 1941–1981 at Caniçal; voluntary end; museum created on 26 February 1990, new building on 2 September 2011

    Forty years of whaling whose tools and stories the Machico municipal museum keeps, with life-size models and 3D films; the 1981 halt followed the ban on marketing whale products by several countries and the decline in sightings.

Services within 1.5 km4

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