 | The town of Machico |  |
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|  General information | _small.png ". Click to enlarge the image.") _small.jpg "Machico in 1940. Cliquer pour agrandir l'image.") Machico is located at the end of a full cultivated small valley, perhaps the most beautiful agricultural landscape of the Madeira, the city is separate in two urban areas by will ribeira da Machico: the old city, west of the river, and the port in the east. |
|  Etymology | | According to the tradition, Zarco itself gave the name of Machico to this bay, because it would have found here fall it from Robert Mac Kean (or Machim) and from Anne d’ Orset. In fact, certain Machico was officer on board boat which Zarco ordered and it is with him that the site would owe its name. |
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| | _small.jpg "The valley of Machico seen since Quinta da Junta with Santo Da Serra. Cliquer pour agrandir l'image.") Machico is located at 26 km east of Funchal. The city occupies a small bay at the end of the broad one and fertile valley of will ribeira of Machico. |
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| | | Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceiçao | | The parish church of Machico, the Our Lady church of the Immaculate Conception, built at the instigation of Branca Teixeira, the wife of the captain and legate of the east of Madeira, was, as most churches of Madeira “baroquized” at the 17th-18th century. One finds the trace of the Gothic manuélin on the frontage in the presence of a thin gate to the geminated arcs. In front of the church, a statue of Tristão Vaz Teixeira, inaugurated in 1972, points out the first captain and legate of the east of the island. | | Igreja São João Baptista | | The parish church Saint-Jean, a construction manuéline built at the end of the 15th century (1499), rises on a place of the planted old city of plane trees. It is bored of a beautiful rosette and a gate decorated with carved capitals of heads of animals. On its side face, gift of king Manuel 1st, the gate consists of geminated arcs of lava supported by white marble columns; it is a pure example of the exuberant architectural style which bears its name. The nave, glaze of an interesting painted ceiling, is flanked vaults; that of left, the vault São João Baptista, opens under an arcade manuéline and shelters the tombs of the captain-donees. King Manuel 1st also offered the statue of the virgin whom one can see above the furnace bridge. | | Capela de São Castles | | At the end of the shaded avenue which borders the port in the west, the vault Saint Roch, rested by Teixeira in 1489, was rebuilt in the style baroque in 1739: its splendid azulejos recalls the life of saint Roch, healer of the plague. A medicinal spring spouts out at side. | | Capela back Milagres | | While passing the bridge on will ribeira of Machico, one enters Bandaged of Alem, the picturesque district of the fishermen, located east of the river. On the great paved and shaded place of plane trees the frontage of the small vault of the Miracles opens. The church would have been built on the site of the tomb of legendary Machim (French Thing…). Tristão Vaz Teixeira had made there build a vault since 1420, undoubtedly the oldest church of Madeira. Destroyed by a tornado in 1803, it was raised and its ogival gate manuélin was positioned back. The vault burned at the 17th century and the church, which succeeded to him, was devastated at the beginning of the 19th century by a flood. The sea carried a Christ with the cross out of wooden which was found a long time after, as by miracle, drifting on the floods. It decorates now the furnace bridge of the vault rebuilt in 1815 and Madériens allots the power to him to make miracles. During the rebuilding, in 1829, an English, Robert Page, claimed to have found the cross of cedar which had been placed on the tomb of the two lovers of Machico. A fragment of this one been the subject of a pilgrimage which attracts in October all the inhabitants of the surroundings. | | Strong of São João Batista | | Discrete Fort Saint-Jean Baptiste protects the north-eastern end from the port; built in 1708, it communicated with another fort inside bay by the lighting of fires. | | Fascist Pico C | | Below the place, the lanes climb towards the hill, between the painted small houses of turquoise or pink. While going towards the point of the rock at the bottom of Fascist mount, one can attend the work of the carpenters repairing the fishing boats on the strike of rollers. It is at the bottom of rock, where the fort is drawn up, which the unloading of Zarco and Teixeira would have had place. |
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| |  History | | Machico can assert its statute of first village of Madeira, because it is in Machico that, in 1419, Zarco and its companions unloaded. The following year, his/her companion, the Portuguese captain and navigator Tristão Vaz Teixeira, accepted infante Henri the direction of the harbor office of Machico, and controlled half is island. | | Tens of years before, a storm had ruined the English couple in love Anne Dorset and Robert Machim on the coast. Anne died of exhaustion and Robert committed suicide of despair. Zarco would have found in bay a engraved cross of their two names and made build, in 1420 and their memory, the capela back Milagres. |
|  Characters | | The statue of Tristão Vaz Teixeira is drawn up opposite the parish church of the 15th century. |
|  Economy | | Machico is one of the centers of naval construction of Madeira and one can see, on the beach, to progress the work of manufacture of new boats or demolition the old ones, the latter being intended for breakage. One built large tuna boats regularly there (thanks to the subsidies of the EU), to replace the old fleet. |
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.png ". Click to enlarge the image.")
.jpg "Machico in 1940. Cliquer pour agrandir l'image.")
Situation.jpg "The valley of Machico seen since Quinta da Junta with Santo Da Serra. Cliquer pour agrandir l'image.")
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