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Explore Madeira

Places to see

  • 🏛️ Culture

    Igreja Matriz de São Jorge

    The largest Baroque church in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, built in the seventeenth century in the parish of São Jorge. Its main front faces north and its window arrangement is unusual in the regional typology: the portal is topped by three sill windows and, in the tympanum, by another window flanked by pilasters carrying a straight cornice. The longitudinal plan holds a single nave and a lower, narrower chancel, with a square bell tower. At the head of the nave, the presbytery is marked by a rosewood balustrade curving at the sides; the altarpieces are in Joanine gilded carving, and there are paintings on canvas.

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  • 🏛️ Culture

    Farol da Ponta de São Jorge

    A 14 m lighthouse set at 271 m of altitude on Ponta de São Jorge, in service since April 1959 though designed as early as 1948. The ribbed cylindrical tower is backed by an adjoining building. It first held a large-model third-order drum dioptric lens (500 mm focal length) and a gas filament lamp; connected to the public electricity grid in 1962, it ran on gas and electricity, then received 12 V / 100 W halogen lamps in 1995 giving it a range of 15 miles. It remotely controls the São Lourenço lighthouse, at the island's other end.

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  • 🔭 Viewpoint

    Miradouro do Cabo Aéreo

    At Arco de São Jorge, in the municipality of Santana, Cabo Aéreo takes its name from the still-visible cable that helped farmers and fishermen lower their goods — the sugar cane grown here left this way by sea for the mills. Jagged cliffs, greenery and deep sea make up one of the north coast's most striking views; you can pick out Calhau de São Jorge, a secluded beach with its small freshwater lagoon, and the ruins of the parish's original settlement, old sugar mills from the early days of colonisation. Picnic area on site.

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  • 🔭 Viewpoint

    Miradouro da Vigia (São Jorge)

    A watch post turned viewpoint: at São Jorge, the Vigia was once used to spot the great cetaceans — it was a privileged whale-sighting spot. The view runs along the north-west coast, from Arco de São Jorge, a village known for the fertility of its soils thanks to its microclimate, to Porto Moniz and its volcanic pools, past Ponta Delgada with its small amphitheatre facing the sea and Seixal, ringed by green mountains. With good visibility, Porto Santo.

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Practical7

The nearest service of each kind from São Jorge, as the crow flies.

Eat & drink2
Where to stay1
The sítios14

The localities and villages the census draws here, without a page of their own: each one is a point on the map.

Other restaurants, bars and cafés9

The places OpenStreetMap names and whose building can be seen at their point: a name and a position, nothing more. No page, no opening hours.

The other parishes