Not far from the heights of Pico do Areeiro and Pico Ruivo, and the lush and dense levadas near Queimadas, there is a part of Madeira deeply immersed in it’s history. This is the county of Santana! I passed through Santana very unassumingly, since the village of Santana itself is very small, but it was later that I found out the curious backstory behind it!
Santana
Santana
R. Dr. João Abel de Freitas Médico 6, 9230 Santana, Portugal“Santana” comes from Santa Ana, due to the location of an ancient chapel (now the main church of the parish) dedicated to a saint of that name. Nowadays, the small village of Santana is very modernized, with a big sport/athletics area near the sea, boasting a rocky beach and a sea-side pool, and many wonderful viewpoints, where you can gaze at the prismatic rock formations of it’s coast.
But this was the first sign of Santana’s history that I kind of overlooked, unlike the cities of Funchal or Machico, or even the village of Câmara de Lobos, which where all also built near the ocean, Santana doesn’t have a port, because besides the small beach area, the rest of it’s coast is just a steep wall of rock, making it almost unaccessible by sea, and like I said in the intro, it’s around Santana that the highest mountain range in all of Madeira is located, as well as many natural reserves and levadas, which means that access by land is also very difficult (or was, since there are tunnels to travel by car). So, many years ago, all of this made Santana almost unaccessible, which helped preserve the local traditions and costumes, like the Casinhas de Santana and Bolo do Caco which can now be seen in many locations, as they are icons of Madeira itself, but the originals are in Santana!
I lacked photos of the Casinhas de Santana, so this photo from wikipedia must serve as example
In conclusion, although a small village, the only county of Santana is highly regarded touristic location, with many locations I’ve mentioned in previous articles and many more I didn’t have time to check out!
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André Jesus
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