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📡 Today's status

The IFCN's official status, read every day. Green only when the IFCN writes « aberto » with no reserve.

● Open · ABERTO

The descent from the pass to São Vicente along a trading path: 3.2 km from Boca da Encumeada (1,000 m) to Ribeira Grande (320 m), about 1:30, moderate. Residents used this path to trade between the villages of the south and the north, and to go on traditional pilgrimages. The first part crosses the native Laurissilva, a UNESCO World Heritage site; after crossing the ER 104 you enter a transition forest dominated by exotic species. At Ribeira Grande, take time to look at the wickerwork: cut from willow, it goes into utility baskets, furniture and the famous Monte sledges. The Vereda do Chão dos Louros (PR 22) is linked to it by a short connector from the forest park. A steady slope, hard on the knees; plenty of shade.

Highlights

  • Encumeada
  • Old trade and pilgrimage path
  • Ribeira Grande wickerwork
  • 680 m descent
Difficulty
Moderate
Length
3.2 km
Elevation gain
680 m
Duration
1:30
Price
€4.50 (over 12) · SIMplifica booking · free for residents and under-13s
Municipality
São Vicente
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Track for guidance only.

Places within 2 km of the route

  • 🌿 Nature

    Parque Florestal do Chão dos Louros

    In the heart of the Laurissilva, a World Heritage site since December 1999, on the ER 104 that drops from Encumeada to São Vicente: laurels often bearing the "madre-de-louro" caused by a fungus, tils, rarer vinháticos, folhados, sanguinhos, faias-das-ilhas, heaths and uveiras whose berries go into jams; the endemic firecrest, chaffinch and trocaz pigeon. Tables and benches, fountains, fireplaces and lawns make it one of the forest leisure spots most sought after by Madeirans; the PR 22 Vereda do Chão dos Louros loop (1.9 km) goes round it, with a lookout over the São Vicente valley and a link to PR 21. Free parking, paid toilets.

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  • 🔭 Viewpoint

    Miradouro da Encumeada

    The pass that separates — and links — the island's two sides: at 1,007 m on the crest of the central range, Boca da Encumeada shows at once the Ribeira Brava valley to the south and the São Vicente valley to the north, both carpeted with forest, and the peaks that often rise out of a sea of clouds. It is a junction of classified trails: PR 1.3 to Pico Ruivo (final section closed in 2026), PR 17 to Folhadal, PR 21 to Ribeira Grande, PR 22 at Chão dos Louros. Serra d'Água, below, completes the visit. By the ER 228; no fee shown.

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  • 🏛️ Culture

    Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário (São Vicente)

    Built in the seventeenth century by the Caldeira family beside an older chapel, it became in 1960 the seat of the new parish of Rosário. Devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary spread widely in the Region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and this church is one of its great examples. The front is Mannerist in structure; the longitudinal plan holds three naves divided by round arches. Inside, the ceiling carries a rendering of Our Lady of the Rosary and the altarpiece, from the late eighteenth century, marks the passage from Rococo to Neoclassical.

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