Skip to content
Explore Madeira
📍 Sítio

Curral das Freiras

🏘️ Câmara de Lobos · Curral das Freiras · Casas Próximas

The most picturesque village of the interior, at the bottom of a deep valley that resembles a crater, ringed by the peaks of the central massif: 25.07 km² and about 2,000 inhabitants, the largest parish of the municipality of Câmara de Lobos. Its name comes from the nuns of the Santa Clara convent who took refuge here in 1566 during the pirate attack on Funchal — one of the island's few places invisible from the sea. The Nossa Senhora do Livramento church (19th century), the Eira do Serrado viewpoint 1,095 m above, the start of PR 2 Vereda do Urzal towards Boca das Torrinhas, and chestnut as the star of the local food.

  • Crater-like valley
  • The nuns' refuge (1566)
  • Chestnut
  • Eira do Serrado above
GPS
32.72028, -16.96558
🧭 Getting there
The place stands in the locality of Casas Próximas, parish of Curral das Freiras (Câmara de Lobos).
🗺️ See it on the map🧭 Go there
Good to know about Curral das Freiras2

  • 1480 — The nuns' corral

    The second captain-donatary of Funchal, João Gonçalves da Câmara, bought the vast Curral estate and gave it to his daughters Elvira and Joana, professed nuns at Santa Clara. The place, until then plain «Curral» and a centre of sheep and goat pasture, then took the name Curral das Freiras.

  • 1566 — The corsairs — Attack on Funchal; the nuns take refuge at Curral das Freiras

    The nuns of the Santa Clara convent fled to the valley invisible from the sea that would take their name. The belt of forts that followed — Palácio de São Lourenço (16th c.), Fortaleza de São Tiago (1614), São José (18th c.), São Bento at Ribeira Brava (1708), Reis Magos and Fortim do Faial (18th c.) — answered these raids.

Services within 1.5 km4

Close by