Travel – Portugal – Porto Santo

This is an excerpt from my book Travels through History : Portugal currently on sale at a discount.

Porto Santo is the other inhabited island in the Madeiran archipelago, about twenty five miles north-east of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean. Planes fly from Lisbon and Madeira on a daily basis with occasional direct flights from London Gatwick and Manchester. Porto Santo has a small airport in the middle of the island with a massive runway that doesn’t appear susceptible to side- and tail-winds as is the case with Madeira’s airport. I gained the impression the military uses this runway too as I saw a large unmarked Hercules aircraft parked down a side runway almost out of view. Visitors can also catch a ferry that sails between Funchal (the capital of Madeira) and Vila Baleira (the main town on Porto Santo) on a daily basis, however I’ve heard that the ferry doesn’t run when the weather is bad. The ferry docks at the north end of the main beach and it’s probably about two miles from there to the centre of Vila Baleira. 

Vila Baleira is a compact place with shops, bars, restaurants, hotels, and a modern pharmacy that sells a whole range of products I’ve not seen anywhere else, such as silica plasters that fit the heel of your foot if you’ve worn a hole in it from shoes that don’t fit properly. All the pharmacists spoke wonderful English and the place was spotless. This was on a Sunday afternoon.

The main attraction in the town is the Porto Santo beach which runs the whole length of the south-eastern coast of Porto Santo from Ponta da Calheta to the ferry dock, a distance of between five and six miles, depending on who’s measuring it. There seem to be other names for certain parts of the beach (Praia in Portuguese) such as Praia do Penedo, Praia da Fontinha, Praia Cabeco da Ponta, and Praia das Pedras Pretas. The beach is very sandy although there’s not a great deal of shade. The water is very clear all around the island which makes it a great place for diving.    

Porto Santo was discovered in 1418 by Portuguese explorers João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, who later discovered Madeira. Vila Baleira prospered under the island’s first governor, Bartolomeu Perestrelo, who authorised the marriage of his daughter, Filipa Moniz, to Christopher Columbus and their house is now an excellent museum and the most popular tourist attraction on Porto Santo. 

The collection includes charts, navigational instruments, models of his vessels Santa Maria, Nina, and Pinta as well as objects collected from the wreck of the Slotter Hooge, a Dutch East Indiaman that went down off Porto Santo in 1724.

Located in Vila Baleira’s main square, the Largo do Pelourinho, the town hall is one of Porto Santo’s oldest and most impressive buildings, dating from the 16th century. 

Vila Baleira’s parish church is called Our Lady of Mercy and is one of the town’s most important sights. It’s worth visiting for its paintings by the renowned 17th-century artist, Martim Conrado. Walking out of Vila Baleira in a south-westerly direction, I found the 17th Century chapel of Espírito Santo. 

If I’d continued in this direction towards the headland Ponte da Calheta and taken a trail to the right just after the Porto Santo hotel I’d have come to the basalt rock formation looking like organ pipes on the slope to Pico de Ana Ferreira. Further on are Pico das Flores and then Ponta da Canaveira with a lighthouse and views of the island and coast.