Machico
| Machico | |||
| Municipality (Concelho) | |||
 The town of Machico in the shadow of the International Airport in Santa Cruz
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| Official name: Concelho do Machico | |||
| Country |  Portugal |
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| Autonomous Region |  Madeira |
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| Island | Madeira | ||
| Civil Parishes | Água de Pena, Caniçal, Machico, Porto da Cruz, Santo António da Serra | ||
| Center | Machico | ||
| - coordinates | 32°42′N 16°46′W / 32.700°N 16.767°WCoordinates: 32°42′N 16°46′W / 32.700°N 16.767°W | ||
| Lowest point | |||
| - elevation | 0 m (0 ft) | ||
| Area | 68.33 km2 (26 sq mi) | ||
| Population | 21,828 (2011) | ||
| Density | 319/km2 (826/sq mi) | ||
| Settlement | c.1420 | ||
| - Municipality | c.1451 | ||
| - City | 2 August 1996 | ||
| LAU | Câmara Municipal | ||
| - location | Largo do Município | ||
| President | Ricardo Miguel Nunes Franco (PS) | ||
| Municipal Chair | João Bosco Costa Castro (PS) | ||
| Timezone | WET (UTC0) | ||
| - summer (DST) | WEST (UTC+1) | ||
| Postal Zone | 9200-099 | ||
| Area Code & Prefix | (+351) 291 XXX XXX | ||
| Demonym | Machiquense | ||
| Patron Saint | Nossa Senhora da Conceição | ||
| Municipal Holidays | 9 October | ||
 Location of the municipality of Machico in the archipelago of Madeira
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| Website: http://cm-machico.pt/ | |||
| Statistics from INE (2001); geographic detail from Instituto Geográfico Português (2010) | |||
Machico (Portuguese pronunciation: [mɐˈʃiku]) is a city and municipality in the southeast part of the island of Madeira, in the Autonomous Region of Madeira. The easternmost municipality on the island, it is also the third most populous area; its population was 21,828 (in 2011). The town, proper, had a population of 10,894 in 2001.
"We saw a land covered in trees until the sea and from that band the fog never descended from the range...We saw a great bay..."
In calm waters of early after, on 1 July 1419, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira disembarked on the beach of Machico, beginning the era of Portuguese discoveries. On the beach a Mass of thanksgiving was celebrated by Franciscan priests on the feast of the Visitation (2 June), an image of which accompanied the expedition.
Many hypotheses have developed as to the origin of the name of the municipality. The most remembered, and not the least disputed, comes from the romanticized legend of the English lovers Robert Machim and Ana d´Arfet. As the legend explains, the two lovers escaped from England (where their love was forbidden and condemned by the Church), suffered the tragedy of a shipwreck and died on the island that became Madeira, where later the first Portuguese explorers encountered two crosses to which they attributed to the lovers: the name appears to be a corruption of the surname Machim.
On 8 May 1440, the Infante Henry the Navigator awarded Tristão Vaz and his descendants the Captaincy of Machico (which included the Ponta da Oliveira, in Caniço, to the Ponta do São Lourenço and from there to the Ponta do Tristão, in Porto Moniz), and by right the first Captaincy in the archipelago of Madeira. The first settlers eked out a meagre subsistence, as a Franciscan monk noted:
"This Town of Machico (head and seat of the first Captain Tristão) even if its small, with few users, it is well situated, happy, of many vegetable gardens and orchards, situated in the middle of a Ravine so fresh as in high elevations"
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Wikipedia