Ribeira Brava

Where Madeira’s south coast turns drier and wilder, the town of Ribeira Brava — the wild stream — sits at the mouth of a deep valley that runs from the island’s peaks to the sea. It is the west’s working town: a fishing quay, a market, and a church whose treasury holds some of the richest art of the island’s early centuries.

The church of the wild stream

The parish church of São Bento ranks among the oldest rural churches of Madeira, rebuilt in the 16th century and filled since with paintings, sculpture and gilded woodwork of the 16th and 17th centuries — a collection unusual in so small a town. The town’s Ethnographic Museum tells the everyday history of the Madeiran west, and the quay still lands the day’s fish. The old road west leads towards Ponta do Sol and the island’s sunny side, and the mountain roads climb towards the plateau above; the capital and its harbour, Funchal, lie twenty minutes east along the coast of Madeira Island.

What to see

• The parish church of São Bento and its treasury
• The Madeira Ethnographic Museum
• The fishing quay and the seafront
• The old streets of the valley mouth
• The west-coast road towards Ponta do Sol

Practical information

Ribeira Brava stands on Madeira’s south-west coast, about twenty minutes by road west of Funchal, on the old coast road to the west of Madeira Island. The town is small and walkable but steep at the sides: wear comfortable shoes, bring sun protection for the dry west coast, and check the museum and church opening times before visiting.

Image credit: Fishing boat near Ribeira Brava by Ввласенко — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.