Água de Pena
| Água de Pena | ||
| Civil Parish | ||
 The pillars of Madeira Airport: the majority of Água de Pena's coast is occupied by the runway extension, which resulted from the dyking of a ravine and re-purposing of the coast
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| Official name: Freguesia da Água de Pena | ||
| Country |  Portugal |
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| Autonomous Region |  Madeira |
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| Island | Madeira | |
| Municipality | Machico | |
| Center | Água de Pena | |
| - elevation | 359 m (1,178 ft) | |
| - coordinates | 32°40′41″N 16°46′55″W / 32.67806°N 16.78194°WCoordinates: 32°40′41″N 16°46′55″W / 32.67806°N 16.78194°W | |
| Lowest point | ||
| - elevation | 0 m (0 ft) | |
| Area | 5.15 km2 (2 sq mi) | |
| Population | 2,434 (2011) | |
| LAU | Junta Freguesia | |
| - location | Estrada Regional 237 | |
| - elevation | 81 m (266 ft) | |
| - coordinates | 32°42′18″N 16°49′5″W / 32.70500°N 16.81806°W | |
| President Junta | Avelino Perestrelo da Conceição (PPD-PSD) | |
| President Assembleia | José Manuel Vasconcelos Nóbrega (PPD-PSD) | |
| Timezone | WET (UTC0) | |
| - summer (DST) | WEST (UTC+1) | |
| Postal Zone | 9200-224 | |
| Area Code & Prefix | (+351) 291 XXX XXX | |
| Patron Saint | Santa Beatriz | |
 Location of the parish seat of Água de Pena in the municipality of Machico, island of Madeira
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Água de Pena is a civil parish in the municipality of Machico on the south-east coast of the Portuguese island of Madeira. The population in 2011 was 2,434, in an area of 5.15 km².
The area of Água de Pena was first sited by the crew and explorers with João Gonçalves Zarco after he disembarked along the coastal spillway of Machico, likely around July 1419; the escarpment of Penedo overlook the beach of Machico, and the crew encamped in the shadow of the promontory overnight, before exploring the island the next day. Father Gaspar Frutuoso later recounted:
It was this second parish that made the discoverers call port on this ignored island. The Porto do Seixo was written into the history of the discoveries as the first locality visited by the discoverers on the second day of their exploration along the coast. But, it is unclear the origin of the parish's name; there are various hypothesises. Some indicate that the primitive name was actually Água de Penha and not Pena: a common mistake/corruption during the era. The use of penha (English: rock) is a better translation for the description recounted by Frutuoso, since the story indicated that the water sprang from a pebble or rock. A similar tale from the parishes early history also recounts that the parish's name "...was derived from a crystalline spring on the abandoned lands of Henrique Teixeira, who had many lands to the west of the village of Machico". Similarly, pena is the Portuguese word for feather, but it is also the Portuguese term for the moulding surfaces of an anvil (Portuguese: parte espalmada da bigorna), which was also inferred from the promontory on which the parish was built, which is also like an anvil (Portuguese: bignora).
The ecclesiastical parish, since its early settlement, has been referred to as Água de Pena (1560), supported by older documents to that effect. Henrique Teixeira, second son of Tristão Vaz Teixeira, one of the Madeira's discoverers and first Captain-donatário of Machico, had many lands "linked with agriculture and for this reason was very wealthy, ennobling the village of Machico with many sugar cane machinery, as well as sugar cane fields, cattle and bread, and assemblies that he ordered cut and take advantage...". A historical genealogy of the Teixeiras, notes that Hirão Teixeira, grandson of Henrique Teixeira, settled, lived and died in Água de Pena, before being buried in the Chapel of Conceição in Machico (1551).
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Wikipedia