A new square, made of the rivers
By Paulo Áureo
For a few years there was a strange grey hill east of Funchal’s quay: stones and gravel dredged from the lower stretches of three of the city’s ribeiras, about 100,000 cubic metres of it, or some 10,000 lorry loads. Instead of carrying it away, the government decided to keep it and build on it.
The result opened in November 2014 as Praça do Povo, the People’s Square: lawns, flowers, paths and benches, with the Atlantic on one side and the amphitheatre of Funchal climbing the hills on the other.
Today families sit there on Sunday afternoons, and few of the people on the benches know they are sitting on what the rivers once carried down. See more of the seafront in things to do in Funchal.
Sources: DNoticias, Praça do Povo opened ten years ago, Visit Madeira, Praça do Povo