A volcanic island in the Atlantic · 32.7° N
Madeira
The floating garden — a single mountain peak rising from the deep ocean, cloaked in laurel forest older than the Ice Age, terraced for wine and laced with thousands of kilometres of levadas.
An island encyclopedia
A mountain in the middle of the ocean, mild the year round, wrapped in cloud forest and ringed by cliffs. This is a slow, careful guide to Madeira — its volcanic bones, its rare wild life, its wine, its levadas and its people.
Read the overview →Start here
All articles →Levadas
Madeira’s levadas are centuries-old irrigation channels that carry water from the wet north to the cultivated south across cliffs and through tunnels — and whose maintenance paths form one of the world’s great hiking networks.
Food & WineMadeira Wine
A fortified wine unique in being deliberately heated as it matures, Madeira ranges from bone-dry Sercial to lusciously sweet Malmsey, ages for a century or more, and once toasted American independence.
ClimateClimate & Weather
Madeira enjoys a mild subtropical climate with warm summers, gentle winters and little seasonal change — but its mountains create dramatic contrasts between a wet north, a sunny south and a cold, cloud-piercing interior.
CultureCulture & Identity
Madeira shares Portugal's language and Catholic faith but has its own accent, traditions, regional pride and a global diaspora — a distinct island identity expressed in music, religion and a deep attachment to the land.
EconomyThe Economy
Once built on sugar then wine, Madeira’s economy now rests above all on tourism, supported by bananas and flowers, the offshore International Business Centre, and decades of EU investment.
Towns & PlacesFunchal
Madeira's capital and only city, Funchal rises in a bowl of hills around its harbour — a place of cathedral and old town, market halls, wine lodges and the cable car climbing to Monte.
1,862 m
of mountain rises within 20 km of the shore at Pico Ruivo.
15,000 ha
of laurel cloud forest — the largest left on Earth.
>2,500 km
of levada channels thread the island, many now walked.
0
natural sandy beaches on the main island — it is all volcanic rock.
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All topics →Find your bearings
The island, mapped
Long from west to east, a single ridge of volcano falling to the sea on every side. Explore towns, peaks and coastline on the interactive map.
Open the map →