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Ribeira Brava

🏘️ Ribeira Brava · Ribeira Brava

The west-coast town, raised to that rank on 26 May 1928 and named after the "wild" stream that crosses it: a municipality of 65.1 km² and about 13,000 inhabitants, with Campanário (and its Fajã dos Padres), Serra de Água and Tábua, where farming — sweet potato, sugar cane, vines, bananas, exotic fruit — remains the main activity thanks to the privileged climate. On the seafront, the Blue Flag bathing complex, the São Bento fort of 1708 rebuilt in 1916 after the 1803 flood, the São Bento church and the Madeira Ethnographic Museum (1996) in a former sugar mill and distillery of 1862. The São Sebastião viewpoint overlooks it; the Encumeada road climbs its valley.

  • Town since 1928
  • Ethnographic Museum
  • São Bento fort (1708)
  • Farming: cane, banana, vines
GPS
32.67134, -17.06476
🧭 Getting there
The place stands in the locality of Ribeira Brava, parish of Ribeira Brava (Ribeira Brava).
🅿️ Parking
The nearest car park is restaurante Aromas, 725 m away.
🗺️ See it on the map🧭 Go there
Good to know about Ribeira Brava2

  • 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.

  • 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.

Services within 1.5 km8

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