Curral das Freiras

The whole central range above 1,400 m, about 8,200 hectares classified a Natural Monument. Two blocks make it up: to the east the island's highest peaks, Pico Ruivo (1,862 m) and Pico do Areeiro (1,818 m); to the west the high points of Paul da Serra, Pico Ruivo do Paul (1,640 m) and Bica da Cana (1,620 m). The ragged relief comes from the differential erosion of water on pyroclastic rock. It is also a geological and high-altitude vegetation reserve, and the only known nesting place of Zino's petrel.

The only piece of historic heritage in Curral das Freiras, built in the early nineteenth century. The place had a chapel from the mid-seventeenth century; a growing population and the distance from the parish of Santo António pushed for independence, granted on 17 March 1790 by charter of Queen Maria I. The ruined Santo António chapel could not serve as a seat, so the church was built. The high altar and the side altars to Our Lady of Livramento and the Sacred Heart date from the major works of the early twentieth century.

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.

At 1,095 m, in the heart of the island in the mountainous interior of Câmara de Lobos, Eira do Serrado is the balcony over Curral das Freiras: the village set on a flat at the bottom of a valley of monumental proportions, ringed by the central massif. A short path starts next to the Estalagem da Eira do Serrado; after the climb, the scene opens onto one of Madeira's most iconic spots. It is also an open-air geology lesson, where you can read the erosion that has carved the island over millennia.