The village of Curral das Freiras

Around, the vines form arbors above dead ends of the village. One cultivates especially the wicker and the beams are put to dry in front of dilly-dally, while waiting for the winter, where it will be braided. The village became famous for its cherries and the manufacture of a liquor called ginja. Excellent cakes there are also found.

The shape of the “Valley of the Nuns”, Curral das Freiras is so singular that one a long time took it for the bottom of a volcanic crater. But this valley was indeed dug by will ribeira of Soccoridos. An impressive crown of peaks and abrupt cliffs girdle the green plate of Curral.

It is only recently, when tunnels under the mountains allowed the passage of the first roads, that the village left its fabulous insulation. The road which carries out to it replaced the old path which traversed in zigzag the vertiginous slopes. Dug in an absolutely vertical rock face, it must cross these two tunnels to reach the village.

The villagers saw only in 1986 their first televised images.

Eira do Serrado is one of the most beautiful sites of Madeira, with impressive sights on the surrounding mountains and the village, in the valley of the Nuns, which constellates with its White Houses the hollow of a mountainous circus to the gullied walls.

Located at 1,053 m of altitude at the bottom of peak do Serrado (1 115 m), the view-point dominates the hearth of an old crater at the bottom of which the village of Curral das Freiras is heated by the sun. The panorama on the mountains with the sharp-edged peaks where the clouds cling is impressive.

With the bottom of the chasm, back Socorridos (torrent of the Survivors) will ribeira it runs with nearly 800 m of depth. Its name evokes the first colonists who found refuge at this place when the island was devastated by seven years the long fire, of 1420 to 1427.

In front of the view-point the vastest circus extends from the mountains of Madeira: in the west the picos Grande (1 607 m) take shape and do Jorge (1 692 m), Pico da Geada (1 497 m); in north, i.e. opposite, Torrinhas (1 823 m); on the right Arieiro (1 810 m) and, all at the bottom, Ruivo (1 861 m).