A small town at the mouth of a river that earned its name, and the crossroads between the south coast and the north.
Brava means wild. For most of the year the river that gives the town its name is a thread of water between stone walls; after heavy rain in the mountains it becomes something else, and the people here have always built with that in mind.
The centre is a few streets around the church of São Bento, with its black-and-white tiled spire, and a short seafront with a pebble beach. The Madeira Ethnographic Museum, in a former sugar-cane mill, shows how people here fished, wove and farmed the terraces.
This is also where the island is crossed. The valley behind the town climbs to the Encumeada pass, where on a clear day you see both coasts at once, and comes down on the other side at São Vicente.
A tipGoing north, take the old road over the Encumeada one way and the tunnel the other: the tunnel saves time, the pass is the reason to go.
- From Funchalabout 20 minutes by car
- ChurchSão Bento, 16th century
- Road northover or under the Encumeada pass, 1,007 m
At the end of the route, in Funchal, four artists draw whatever you bring back from the island: a place, a flower, a word, a set of coordinates.
The outline of the island
Madeira in a single line.