Fortaleza do Pico

Funchal


Easy to spot, but taxing to reach, it's worth the slog up to this rock-top fortress northwest of the city centre for the stupendous views, possibly the best of Funchal in its entirety you'll get anywhere. Built in the 17th century as a surveillance point, the building has been Portuguese navy property for the last seven decades. Undervisited, it now has a cafe and an exhibition but also serves as a tranquil, if sometimes windy, picnic venue.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Funchal attractions

1. Quinta das Cruzes

0.15 MILES

Now a museum, the Quinta das Cruzes is a quintessential old Madeiran manor house complete with gardens and a private chapel. Originally the home of João…

3. Convento de Santa Clara

0.17 MILES

The highlight of this 15th-century convent, once the island's richest, is one of the island's most attractive churches, with floor to ceiling azulejos…

4. Casa-Museu Frederico de Freitas

0.2 MILES

Built by the counts of Calçada in the 17th century, this tasteful mansion was purchased by a local lawyer, Frederico de Freitas, in the 1940s. An avid…

5. Museu de História Natural

0.26 MILES

This old-fashioned museum, housed (in classic Funchal fashion) in a surplus palace, has an ageing aquarium on the ground floor, and stuffed local fauna,…

6. Jardim de Santa Luzia

0.33 MILES

Created from an old sugar works – hence the huge chimney in the middle and old bits of machinery scattered around the place – this undervisited city…

7. Jardim Municipal

0.36 MILES

Verdant old park in the city centre, created on the site of the Convent of San Francisco, with tens of exotic labelled trees, twittering birds, basalt…

8. Museu Photographia Vicentes

0.38 MILES

Set up by Vicente Gomes da Silva in 1865, this exquisitely preserved photographic studio, above a shady cobbled courtyard, was in use until 1982. The…