Ponta do Pargo
| Ponta do Pargo | |||
| Civil Parish | |||
 Coast of Ponta do Pargo; a cliff-top escarpment extending into the North Atlantic from Lombada Velha
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| Official name: Freguesia da Ponta do Pargo | |||
| Name origin: Portuguese for point of the porgy | |||
| Country |  Portugal |
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| Region |  Madeira |
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| Island | Madeira | ||
| Municipality | Calheta | ||
| Center | Ponta do Pargo | ||
| - elevation | 447 m (1,467 ft) | ||
| - coordinates | 32°48′41″N 17°14′52″W / 32.81139°N 17.24778°WCoordinates: 32°48′41″N 17°14′52″W / 32.81139°N 17.24778°W | ||
| Lowest point | |||
| - elevation | 0 m (0 ft) | ||
| Area | 24.71 km2 (10 sq mi) | ||
| Population | 909 (2011) | ||
| Density | 37/km2 (96/sq mi) | ||
| Settlement | fl. 1560 | ||
| - Parish | 4 March 1560 | ||
| - Civil Parish | 26 June 1851 | ||
| LAU | Junta Freguesia | ||
| - location | Salão Cima | ||
| - elevation | 453 m (1,486 ft) | ||
| - coordinates | 32°48′42″N 17°14′54″W / 32.81167°N 17.24833°W | ||
| President Junta | João Guilhermino Gouveia (PPD-PSD) | ||
| Timezone | WET (UTC0) | ||
| - summer (DST) | WEST (UTC+1) | ||
| Postal Zone | 9385-238 | ||
| Area Code & Prefix | (+351) 291 XXX XXX | ||
| Patron Saint | São Pedro | ||
 Location of the parish seat of Ponta do Pargo in the municipality of Calheta, island of Madeira
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Ponta do Pargo is a civil parish in the municipality of Calheta in the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira. The population in 2011 was 909, in an area of 24.71 km². It is located west of the municipal seat of Calheta, and southwest of the municipality of Porto Moniz.
The name of the parish, as the historian Gaspar Frutuoso explained, came from early explorers to the western tip of the island of Madeira, whom fished the waters and caught a species of porgy.
The settlement began with Garcia da Câmara, son-in-law of João Gonçalves Zarco, who here began establishing small estates run by colonists who tilled the land. Many of the lands in the parish were originally in the name of Garcia da Câmara and Afonso Henriques, Master of Alcáçovas (dated to the 16th century). The date for the creation of the parish remains a mystery. In the opinion of Father Fernando Augusto da Silva, it occurred in the late 1560s, since the regal document on 4 March of the same year referred to the congregation of this parish. Meanwhile, the lands of the civil parish pertained, at the time, to the neighbouring parish of Fajã da Ovelha.
The parish of Ponta do Pargo was incorporated into the municipality of Porto Moniz, between 31 October 1835 and 1849, until that municipality was suppressed during the administrative reforms of the Liberal regime. Porto Moniz, along with Ponta do Pargo, therefore began to function as a part of the much larger municipality of Calheta. The restoration of the municipality of Porto Moniz in 1855, resulted in the reincorporation of the parish of Ponta do Pargo. On 26 June 1851, Ponta do Pargo was deannexed from Porto Moniz and reintegrated into the municipality of Calheta (as it remains today).
Owing to the extreme geology of the western coast, with its cliffs and rocky coast, a lighthouse was constructed in the heights of Ponta da Vigia, at the extreme westerly promontory of the parish, inaugurated on 5 June 1922.
Ponta do Pargo is a diamond-shape territory on the western edge of the island Madeira. From its high-altitude cliffs it extends into the interior along escarpments cut by several river valleys to the Serra do Paul. The northwest to southwest border fronts the Atlantic Ocean, while its northern frontier is limited by its border with the municipality of Porto Moniz (Porto Moniz) and Fajã da Ovelha (within the municipality of Calheta. The cliff-top bluffs reach a height of 392 metres above sea level, while its interior extent reaches an altitude of just over 1321 metres. The most westerly extent, the Ponta in the parishes name, is manned by a lighhouse.
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