Madeira, the Portuguese island in the Atlantic Ocean

15 March 2011 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Market in Funchal © Hannes Grobe

Market in Funchal © Hannes Grobe

Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union. The archipelago comprises one of the two Autonomous regions of Portugal (the other being the Azores located to the northwest), that includes the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, the Desertas and the Savage Islands. Madeira was re-discovered by Portuguese sailors in the service of Infante D. Henrique (Henry the Navigator) in 1419, and settled after 1420. The archipelago is considered to be the first territorial discovery of the exploratory period of the Portuguese Age of Discovery.   read more…

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