Madeira (1): A First Look at Central Funchal

The Cathedral, 3D Fun Art Museum and Blandy's Wine Lodge

Introduction

Portugal

Madeira

Madeira, as you probably know, is a Portuguese Island in the Atlantic, 1,000km south west of Lisbon and 700km west of the Moroccan coast. It measures 50km from east to west, 20km from north to south and rises to 1,861m (6,106 ft) at Pico Ruivo. It has 250,000 permanent inhabitants, half of whom live in the capital, Funchal. This post is about our first visit to central Funchal.

Madeira

The Morning and a Limpet Lunch

After encountering one of the most comprehensive breakfast buffets we have ever seen, we took a small orientation stroll. We were really killing time until the tour company rep turned up to give us the benefit of her local knowledge. She did a good job, explaining the local bus system and cable cars, and selling us tickets for the latter. She also sold us a couple of excursions. This all took longer than expected and scuppered our plan for coffee and a pastel de nata in a nearby bakery.

When she left we had enough time to eschew the buses, and walk the 2.5km to the town centre, an interesting perambulation I will return to in a future post. By lunchtime we had reached the pedestrian area outside the theatre where the Café Teatro furnished us with beer, bolo do caco and a pan of grilled limpets. For more see Madeira: Eating and Drinking.

Afterwards we strolled to the end of the pedestrian area, passing the statue of João Gonçalves Zarco who discovered this hitherto uninhabited island in 1420…

João Gonçalves Zarco, marking the centre of Funchal

… and reached the Cathedral

Funchal Cathedral

With a single tower surmounted by a pepper pot spire and a plain gothic façade, Funchal’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption is modest by the standards of Portuguese cathedrals.

Funchal Cathedral

As the first Portuguese settlers did not arrive until 1420, King Manuel I was relatively quick off the mark sending an architect in the 1490s to design and build a cathedral for the new catholic diocese of Funchal. Mass was being celebrated here by 1508, and the building was finished by 1514, though the spire was added in 1517. The cathedral is one of Madeira’s oldest surviving buildings.

The interior avoided the Baroque makeover that is the glory (or not, depending on taste) of most Portuguese cathedrals and many churches …

Interior, Funchal Cathedral

... and being narrow there is no space for the deep, ornate side chapels …

More a side altar than a side chapel

… though there is a Manueline silver processional cross donated by Manuel I. Manueline was a style popular in Portugal during his reign and drawing its inspiration from the Portuguese voyages of discovery.

Altar, Funchal Cathedral

Cathedral to Fun Art

On the 5-minute walk from the Cathedral to the 3D Fun Art Museum we passed a bust of Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941) who founded the Scout Movement and became Lord Baden-Powell as a reward.

The bust commemorates the 70th anniversary of the founding of the movement in 1907. I was not aware that Scouting was particularly strong on Madeira, nor that Baden-Powell had any connections with the island, though he visited once in the 1930s. I was a Boy Scout (as we were then called) in the early 1960’s and my grandson is a Scout now, so perhaps Baden-Powell’s legacy is more far-reaching than I realised.

Robert Baden-Powell, Funchal

Many of the narrow streets of central Funchal are pedestrianised and often colonised by the tables of cafés and restaurants, giving the city a pleasantly relaxed feel.

Narrow streets, central Funchal

3D Fun Art

In 2017, during our few days on the Malaysian island of Langkawi we discovered that our tickets for the Skybridge cable car included ‘free’ entrance to the Art in Paradise 3-D Art Museum, a grandiose name for a collection of trompe l’oeil paintings. I went to sneer, but was won over in the first minute. Madeira’s 3D Fun Art Museum, a short walk from the cathedral, is very similar, and this time we willingly paid good money for it.

It is not really art (in its pretentious sense), but it is entertaining. Here are the best of the pictures:

It may only be a pussy cat, but when it's that size I think you should keep an eye on it

I like a bit of vandalism now and again

I've cracked this levitation business

...and Craig Revel Horwood said....

I told you to watch that cat

They go a little further than their Malaysian equivalent, investigating other optical illusions…

Who shrunk me?

… and the properties of reflection

To solve a problem, gather half a dozen older, wiser citizens to sit down and sort it out. This lot could solve anything.

Blandy’s and Madeira Wine

Another very short walk took us to cellars of Blandy’s, the largest producer of Madeira wine, where we signed up for the guided tour.

From 3D Art to Blandy's

Madeira: A Unique Wine

Wine growing started on the island as soon as it was settled. In the age of discovery its Atlantic location gave Madeira opportunities for exporting to north west Europe and the growing British North American colonies, as well as being a stopping point for Portuguese ships bound for the east.

Wine tended to spoil during long sea voyages and as a preventative the partly fermented must was dropped into high-alcohol distilled spirit (from sugarcane in the early days, from grapes later). The alcohol content of the mixture (around 20%) stopped the fermentation, leaving a sweet, heavy and very stable wine. Port was treated similarly and both became popular in cooler northern climes (the mini-ice-age was at its nadir 1645-1715 and temperatures improved only slowly over the next 150 years).

Some residents of Blandy's wine Lodge

At some time so vague it might be legendary, a consignment was returned unsold from the Dutch East Indies. It was tasted with the expectation that it would be unsaleable, but the tasters discovered the journey had enhanced rather than spoiled the wine. Soon Madeira sent to the East Indies and back as ballast was being sold at a premium. Then the producers realised the same effect could be achieved more cheaply by heat. The finest wines spend years in barrels stored directly below Madeira’s sun-blasted roofs, the more basic wines spend months in barrels heated by hot water. Long before Madeira is bottled it is fully oxidised, and will keep indefinitely even after the cork is removed

Port was a serious competitor in the British market, but in the American colonies Madeira ruled, the colonies at one time taking 95% of the island’s wine exports. An early dispute between the colonies and the mother country arose in 1768 with the seizure of John Hancock's sloop Liberty in Boston over the duty on a cargo of Madeira. When the colonists decided to go their own way in 1776, they wrote a Declaration of Independence, and toasted the signing with Madeira.

Blandy’s

John Blandy
Copyright Blandys (Thank you)

The guided tour told us about both the wine and Blandys. John Blandy was one of several British entrepreneurs who came to Madeira in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He set up a wine business in 1811.

Blandy’s grew steadily throughout the 19th century, acquiring more vineyards and mature wines to hedge against the oidium plague that halted production in the 1850s. Blandy’s survived the lean times in the first half of the 20th century, when they lost the American market to prohibition and Russian market to revolution, but all was not well in the world of Madeira wine

In 1988, when Madeira’s future seemed to be only as a cooking wine, they allied with the Symington Family of Port producers to lead the rebirth of quality Madeira. The future now looks brighter.

Over the years Blandy’s has diversified and become something of a Madeiran conglomerate, but has remained a family firm. The current CEO, Chris Blandy, is a descendent of the company’s founder.

The Types of Wine

Madeira is produced in four different varieties, designated dry, medium dry, medium sweet and sweet, though I would call them dryish, medium sweet, sweet and tooth rotting. The drier wines are usually drunk as aperitifs, the sweeter as after dinner drinks.

Five different grape varieties are used. Negra Mole, a workhorse grape throughout Portugal, accounts for 85% of the planting in Madeira and can be manipulated to produce wine of any desired sweetness. This is entry level Madeira, but it is real Madeira with its expensive and complicated production methods. That it can be sold in a British supermarket at less than £10 is remarkable.

The four quality grapes are Sercial for ‘dry’ wines, then Verdelho, Malmsey (or Malvasia) and Boal in increasing order of sweetness. ‘No other grape varieties are used,’ said the guide, standing between a barrel of Malvasia and one of Terrentez!

Apparently Terrentez still has some uses, Blandy's wine Lodge

Each of these grapes is bottled at a variety of ages, from 5-year-old, upwards and there are also some single vintage wines. The variety of bottlings in any one winery is bewildering.

Our visit ended with a tasting of 5-year-old Verdelho and 5-year-old Malmsey.

The Malmsey was too sweet for me, the sugar drowning out all other flavours, but would I like the Verdelho?

What's this one like, then? Blandy's 5-year-old Verdelho

Yes, I would. Dry enough for an aperitif, or as an accompaniment to cheese, the nose promises flavours of raisins, wild fruit, wood and spices.

Oh, I like that. Blandy's 5-year-old Verdelho

So, I had no option but to buy a bottle.

Blandy's 5-year-old Verdelho

On offer at the lodge, it was around 8 euros; tremendous value, I thought and less than half what it would cost at home. I would have bought more if airlines had not been so fussy about the weight of people's cases.

I should add that while the DOP (Denominação de Origem Controlada) Madeira can only be used by the fortified wines described above, the island also produces ‘normal’ wines. The best are entitled to the DOP Madeirense, (see Madeira: Eating and Drinking), more modest wines can qualify to be called Vinho Regional Terras Madeirenses.

Back to our Hotel

We emerged from Blandy’s Wine Lodge almost where we started, opposite the Café Teatro and beside a well-frequented taxi rank. We hopped into the leading cab and were delivered to the door of our hotel for 6 Euros. We had enjoyed a pleasant morning walk and a convenient trip back and saved 2 Euros on taking the bus both ways. That seemed good value!

That evening we dined near our hotel in the Mad Market Restaurant; a poor name, I thought, for a serious restaurant, even if it is in a shopping mall. See Madeira:Eating and Drinking for details.

Madeira

Introduction
Part 1: A First Look at Central Funchal
Part 2: Mercado and Monte Palace Gardens
Part 3: Funchal to Santana
Part 4: Eira do Serrado and Câmara de Lobos
Part 6:Eating and Drinking