- Arco da Calheta
- Calheta town
- Estreito da Calheta
- Prazeres
- Jardim do Mar
- Paul do Mar
- Fajã da Ovelha
- Ponta do Pargo
| Parish | People (2021) | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Arco da Calheta | 2,999 | Loreto chapel, old sugar estates |
| Calheta | 3,188 | Beach, marina, MUDAS, Engenho |
| Estreito da Calheta | 1,578 | Chapel of the Magi, sea views |
| Prazeres | 685 | Hill village, educational farm |
| Jardim do Mar | 215 | Surf, lanes on a fajã |
| Paul do Mar | 635 | Fishing harbour, waves |
| Fajã da Ovelha | 812 | Viewpoints, butter-factory ruins |
| Ponta do Pargo | 803 | Lighthouse, sunset, apple feast |
Population from the 2021 census (INE). The whole municipality had 10,915 residents, down from 11,521 in 2011.
Arco da Calheta
The largest parish by population sits east of the town, on slopes of vines and bananas looking towards Ponta do Sol. Its pride is the Chapel of Nossa Senhora do Loreto, built around 1510 by Joana d’Eça, wife of Zarco’s grandson Pedro Gonçalves da Câmara. It keeps its Manueline single nave, a Renaissance marble holy-water stoup and a blue-and-white painted wooden ceiling. Its feast on 8 September is one of the best known in the municipality (festival calendar).
The parish church of São Brás was commissioned around 1520 by João Fernandes do Arco, rebuilt between 1744 and 1754 and blessed on 1 January 1755; it keeps six 16th-century paintings of the saint and the donors. Down by the sea, the little Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Vida (1663) was where fishermen and sailors came to pray.
Arco’s sugar past lives on in its hotels: the Engenho Velho, an ox-driven mill of 1883, and a steam mill built in 1857 by the first Count of Calçada both became places to stay. Read more in the history of Calheta.
Calheta town
The town grew round a cove where boats could land, and that cove is now the heart of modern Calheta: two sheltered sand beaches, the marina and a promenade of cafés. Whale and dolphin trips leave from here (whale watching) and the beach is the calmest swim on the coast (beaches).
On the cliff above the beach, MUDAS, the Contemporary Art Museum of Madeira, was designed by architect Paulo David and opened in October 2004. Its dark basalt volumes are built into the slope, and the collection holds about 400 works. It opens Tuesday to Saturday, 9:30–13:00 and 14:00–17:30. The older Casa das Mudas (1759), a manor in the valley known as Vale dos Amores, is now a cultural centre and the municipal library.
In the centre, the Engenho da Calheta has ground sugar cane since 1894 and still makes rum and mel de cana (visit the Engenho). The Igreja do Espírito Santo, the mother church, was rebuilt in 1639 on a late-15th-century foundation; inside are a Mudéjar wooden ceiling and an ebony tabernacle with silver inlay that tradition says King Manuel I gave to the town. The town hall occupies the old Santa Casa da Misericórdia, founded on 7 October 1535 around a hospital opened in 1505.
Small things worth a look: the 6.1-metre fountain of 1921 in Praça da Ponte, the lime kiln of 1911 (the only one in the municipality), and the chimney of a 1908 sugar mill now standing in the municipal park.
Estreito da Calheta
Estreito spreads up the hill behind the town, among vineyards and banana terraces with wide views of the sea and the sunset. Its parish church, Nossa Senhora da Graça, began as a chapel founded in 1503 by João de França; the present church is dated 1791 on its façade and was blessed in 1793. The feast on 15 August draws the whole west coast.
Do not miss the Chapel of the Magi (Capela dos Reis Magos), founded in the 1520s by Francisco Homem de Gouveia and his wife Isabel Afonso. It is a simple Manueline chapel with a carved wooden ceiling and a Flemish altarpiece of painted oak showing the Adoration of the Magi, with the Annunciation on the back. Madeira’s heritage office calls it unique on the island and rare in Portugal, and it is classed as a Monument of Public Interest.
Estreito also had a butter factory (1910–1969). It was restored in 2010 as holiday accommodation with a bakery, keeping its old outer walls.
Prazeres
Prazeres sits on the plateau above the cliffs, a quiet farming parish on the road west. The church of Nossa Senhora das Neves was ordered in 1745 and begun in 1751; Father Felix added its side wings and tower in 1922, and in the 1940s the parish changed its patron from Our Lady of Pleasures (Prazeres) to Our Lady of the Snows, whose feast is on 5 August.
The Quinta Pedagógica dos Prazeres, an educational farm opened in October 2000, is the place to take children: farm animals, gardens, a tea house and two small art galleries in yellow buildings around the old rectory. On 18 January Prazeres holds the feast of Santo Antão, with the blessing of animals.
From the edge of the parish the land drops almost vertically to Jardim do Mar and Paul do Mar. The viewpoints here are among the best places on the coast for the evening light (sunset spots).
Jardim do Mar
Jardim do Mar (“garden of the sea”) is the smallest parish, with about 215 people on a fajã, a flat shelf of land at the foot of the cliffs. It is a village of narrow paved lanes, flowers and low houses, and you reach it by a road down from Prazeres or through the tunnel from Paul do Mar.
The church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário was rebuilt from 1906 in a Gothic style inspired by Notre-Dame in Paris and blessed on 19 September 1907; the parish dates from 1734. Look out for the bright pink chapel of Nossa Senhora da Piedade (1736, rebuilt 1825) beside its manor house, the chimney of a 1900 sugar mill and the old watermill at Sítio das Roseiras.
In winter the point below the village produces one of the most powerful right-hand waves in Europe. Watch from the promenade, or read our surf guide if you plan to paddle out.
Paul do Mar
Paul do Mar is a fishing village strung along a strip of land between the cliffs and the sea, with bananas on the terraces behind. Fishing has always come first here: a tuna cannery opened in 1913, cooking fish in 12 boilers and packing it in olive oil, and its chimney still stands among the houses. A fishermen’s quarter was built in 1944.
On the harbour front, the three-metre statue of the Homem do Mar (Man of the Sea), unveiled in 2004, honours the fishermen. The parish church of Santo Amaro was rebuilt in 1974; the saint’s feast on 15 January opens the festival year. The poet Vasco da Gama Rodrigues (1909–1991) was born here.
The waves along the harbour walls draw experienced surfers, and the village hosted part of the 2001 world surfing championships (surfing). For lunch, the fish restaurants on the front serve the day’s catch (where to eat).
Fajã da Ovelha
Fajã da Ovelha spreads over the high ground between Paul do Mar and Ponta do Pargo. The parish was created around 1518–1520 and first worshipped in the Chapel of São Lourenço, whose gable carries the date 1648. The present church of São João Baptista was built in the second half of the 18th century; inside are a Rococo altarpiece and mid-20th-century paintings by the German artist Max Römer showing scenes from Galilee framed by Madeiran tropical fruit.
In the late 19th century the parish made “Águia” butter, exported before the First World War, in a factory that was the first building in the parish with electricity. A cable carried the butter down the cliff to Paul do Mar; its ruins remain at the Zimbreiros viewpoint, which looks over Ponta do Pargo, Fajã da Ovelha and Paul do Mar. The factory itself, a listed building, was destroyed by the wildfire of October 2023.
The Raposeira viewpoint, at about 600 metres, is another fine place for the late afternoon light. São João (24 June) is the parish feast.
Ponta do Pargo
Ponta do Pargo is the westernmost point of Madeira. Its name is usually explained by a large pargo, a sea bream, said to have been caught off the point by the first navigators. The lighthouse stands on the cliff about 300 metres above the sea, one of the highest in Portugal; it was designed in 1911, built between 1912 and 1915, waited for its lantern until 1921 because of the First World War, and was first lit in June 1922. West of it there is nothing but open Atlantic, which makes it the sunset spot of the island.
The church of São Pedro grew from a chapel built by fishermen around 1560; it was restored in 1687 and partly rebuilt in 1851. The chapel of Nossa Senhora do Amparo, on its own headland, is another viewpoint. Pico das Favas (149 m) was for years the parish signal station. Inland, the Garganta Funda waterfall, known locally as the Auguage, falls about 200 metres.
Ponta do Pargo is apple country. In September the Festa do Pêro celebrates the local apples, and in mid-September the Festa dos Tabuleiros carries trays of offerings in procession to be auctioned for the church (festivals).