Madalena do Mar is a civil parish in the municipality of Ponta do Sol in the Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 archipelago of Madeira

Madeira

Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...

. The population in 2001 was 687 and the area is 2.07 km² (its density is 332 inhabitants per km²).

History

By conjecture, the primitive community was referred to as Madalena or Santa Maria Madalena, and received its suffix from its location along the sea, in order to distinguish it from the parish and chapel of Santa Maria Madalena, in the parish of Porto Moniz (which was the centre of pilgrimages). Even today, the area is still referred to as Madalena by many of the locals.

The parish had its origin in a small farm and houses, including chapel (whose patron was Santa Maria Madalena, but yet invoked to the name of Santa Catarina. From this origin, many noblemen concentrated into the area, as noted in Saudades da Terra by Gaspar Frutuoso

Gaspar Frutuoso

Gaspar Frutuoso was a Portuguese priest, historian and humanist from the island of São Miguel, in the Azores...

:

"…Henrique Allemão, legendary person of the primitive times of colonization of this island of Madeira. Of him they said he was a Polish prince and that, having lost in 1444 a battle in Varna to Ladislaus IV of Hungary against Amurato II, he made a vow to travel the land as a knight onboard the carrack Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai

Santa Catarina Do Monte Sinai

Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai was a higher-castled Portuguese carrack with 140 cannons, launched down in 1520 . Built in Kochi, India around 1512 it had two square rig masts and is depicted on a painting attributed to Joachim Patinir. In 1523 it was the flagship of Vasco da Gama....

. Arriving on the island of Madeira, João Gonçalo Zarco gave him, the area that was later called Madalena do Mar, a large unseeded plot of land, which was later confirmed by Infante Henrique on 29 April 1457, and by Afonso V on the 18 May os the same year. With effect, Henrique Allemão there founded a large populated farm, with chapel to the invocation of Santa Maria Madalena, which resulted in the localities name. He married the Lady Annes, and died disasteriously when he was crushed by falling rocks from Cabo Girão fell on his boat, as he returned from the city of Funchal to Madalena. His wife later married João Rodrigues de Freitas. Still now there is, above the village of Ponta do Sol, a Fajã do Allemão, that the people corruptly cultivate lemon."

Geography

This parish on the south-west coast of Madeira in the shadow of Canhas

Canhas

Canhas is a civil parish in the municipality of Ponta do Sol in the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira. Extending into the interior from the coast, the parish of 16.66 km² is nestled between the Calheta , Câmara de Lobos and São Vicente has a population of 3214 .-Geography:Two primary...

, and buttressed by the civil parish of Arco da Calheta

Arco da Calheta

Arco da Calheta is a civil parish in the municipality of Calheta in the Portuguese islands of Madeira. The population in 2001 was 3,241, in an area that extendes 14.7 km² into the interior of Paúl da Serra...

, while fronting the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

.

Madalena do Mar is a parish with a primary a school.

Economy

The primary activity in the community is the cultivation of banana, with much of the land along the cliff faces occupied by terraced-fields with rows of banana trees.