A place, that you also must have seen, is Curral the Freiras, the nun-valley.
The translation of the name is not quite exact. It actually must be called
"nun-stall" by verbatim translation. Sound less friendly of course.
It should be the only place, from which one should not be able to look out of the sea. On the basis of the geographical realities (deep valleys
indent the mountains everywhere) it is however conceivable, that there are still other valleys, that can claim this.
In any case, this is the deepest situated village of Madeira. The finding of
this name bases on a sad historical occurence. Because of the big wealth of Madeira and the
neighbour island Porto Santo, these were regular victims of partially heaviest
pirate attacks. As Porto Santo once had been invaded of a disastrous attack one day,
they succeeded in warning Madeira per beacons of the forthcoming disaster. As the nuns
of Funchal heard of it, they wondered how to save their lives and how to rescue at least a part of
their belongings. Then, they chose the deep valley, to which no regular way
stil led in this time. They had to struggle with the dense forest in order to reach
there. The following pirate attack was actually the heaviest and cost many
human lives and treasures of the island. But the nuns in that valley remained spares. The sugarcane-cultivation collapsed
shortly after this as well, what additionally pushed the economy of Madeira into a heavy crisis.
Meanwhile, a narrow street leads there, that releases an intoxicating gaze at the valley.
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Nowadays, this place is well known because of its chestnut-liqueur and the socalled annual festival.
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