World Travel https://www.youtube.com/user/World1Tube Madeira, Portugal Travel Guide http://bit.ly/1dkv4Rz Shepherd Entertainment takes you on a tour of Santana in Madeira, where tourist may believe that they'll see small triangle shaped thatched housed painted with happy colors all over the island. Actually, these kinds of buildings are only typical in Santana and its immediate surroundings. Visit Santana on Madeira Island, Portugal The steep rocky slopes became a wide plateau at Santana. The terrace fields here are very suitable for vegetable and fruit growing and also a lot of willows are planted here. The twigs cut from them during spring are used for basket weaving. Tourist may believe that they'll see small triangle shaped thatched housed painted with happy colors all over the island. Actually these kinds of buildings are only typical in Santana and its immediate surroundings. The local authorities try to protect this small houses scattered about. Some of them are already just for tourist purposes with small exhibitions or souvenir shops inside but some are still inhabited. As only boards and weeds are used as constructions materials, there's no bathroom in the house or any kitchen in order to avoid fires. Nowadays these facilities are located in a big tradition to the house. Traditionally the living room and the parental bedroom used to be on the ground floor while the children's rooms were upstairs. Considering the sizes, its not surprising that today, only lonely old people live in this huts. However in the vineyards above Santana these are also used as wine press houses or as weekend houses. The Casa de Como is used to be homes for the poor, well to do people lived in simple houses. We can see many well houses of this kind even today above the Saint Laurence Fortress and in the old town. The really rich, especially the sugar barons, land owners and vineyard owners live on their property in noble houses arranged around a central court. Interestingly, these are quite similar to the luxurious palaces of the Latin American Sugar barons. Fountains often cooled the shady family in the courtyards, the common premises, the living room, library, music hall and dining hall open from here while from the gallery running around the first floor, the luxuries furnished rooms of the family members could be reached. Some of these noble lodges called Quintal have been transformed into hotels in our days. The former public buildings represent two styles, the Manuel and the Baroque. The 15th Century when King Manuel the first came into the throne, a new architectural style formed all over Portugal. This was the version of the Gothic in which the most bearing feature was richly huge stone ornamentations. The themes, as they can bee seen in the churches in Lisbon and Agaves, were boating, discoveries and exotic sea creatures. Into this time and also later in constructing churches and public buildings carved wooden roofs and tile decorations of Moorish origin were very typical. The similar way of exaggerated decorative Baroque followed the manual style. This is especially evident on the gold leaf covered main and inside in the churches and in the facades of the many municipal public buildings. The typical furniture on the island and in the 17th century was made of sugar crates. The sugar loving came from Brazil and was packed in reddish brown, leather hard mahogany boxes. The people on Madeira liked this kind of crates so much that they asked the local masters to make furniture from them. Decorated with rod iron straps and mosaics, today an old piece can cost a fortune. The mountains on Madeira are higher than 1,500—1,600 meters providing a good opportunity for para-gliding to see the best meeting panorama from a birds eye view. Pico de Aurero, Poca de Neva, Pico de Aussies and Pau de Cera is suitable starting points for this sport as these peaks can be approached by car. The Camacha built on a plateau is famous for several things, the tower on the café on the main square looks like Big Ben in London and this is no coincidence. The English sportsman had the house built, there's a memorial plaque on its wall that the first football game in the island was played in 1975 while this English gentleman was the referee. From the tower and from the New Cap Tower next to it we can have a view all the way to the ocean, above the forest of terrace cultivated bay and eucalyptus trees. Tags: Visit Santana in Madeira,madeira travel attractions,madeira travel guide,madeira travel information,madeira travel tips,Portugal travel tips,santana in madeira,shepherd entertainment,world travel,shepherdfilm

• published: 20 Aug 2013
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