At the base of a 250-meter cliff, Fajã dos Padres remained isolated for centuries. Its transition from Jesuit ownership to private estates reveals a hidden place defined by history, rare wines, and Madeira’s raw landscape.
At the start of the 20th century, Madeirans crossed the ocean in search of a better life in Venezuela. With Black Friday in 1983 that dream started to collapse. What followed was a long journey - from exile to homecoming.
Rising in 1972, Hotel Atlantis was Madeira’s modernist masterpiece. Once a symbol of luxury, this concrete colossus collapsed within 22 years under the weight of a changing world.
Madeira’s fajãs are striking cliffside formations, shaped by unique geological forces, that have presented both opportunities and challenges to the island’s people for centuries.
Originating in a far-right separatist movement and drawing symbolic influence from Portugal’s Age of Discovery, the Madeiran flag appears minimalist at first glance - yet behind its design lies a complex story of identity, power, and regional ambition.
Back in 1985, the name Ronaldo was virtually unknown in Portugal, yet Cristiano was named after one of the leading figures of the time.
November 25, 1975, was a turning point in Portugal’s transition to democracy, and even 50 years later, it remains a highly contested date. Seeing the rise of a multipolar world order, it calls on us to reflect and remember: everything is at stake, always.
As the first European butterfly to disappear, the Madeiran Large White, once common across Madeira and even Funchal, has been declared officially extinct by the IUCN.
In 1931, the Madeira Uprising challenged the Portuguese Ditadura Nacional, demanding the restoration of constitutional government. The rebellion, supported by the local population, was fueled by severe flour shortages imposed by the dictatorship.
During the Great War, German submarines repeatedly attacked Funchal, carrying out a severe assault on Portuguese territory.
In 1995, doctors at a Madeira clinic performed the island’s first gender-affirming surgery, in which the patient transitioned from male to female - at the time, a highly complex procedure.
