Nearby

If you need challenges for the weekend, accept this one, for it isn’t every day.

Solar do Ribeirinho, in Machico, receives, until next Sunday, the exhibit “memories of 25 de Abril in the Machico council”.

The exhibit analyses the events and the popular movements that took place in the volatile period of Madeira’s and Portugal’s recent history, it’s context, and the role of the Centro de Informação Popular de Machico (CPIM – Machico Popular Information Centre) in the diffusion and acceptance of the revolution’s ideals in Machico and Madeira.

The exhibit is the work of the former president of both the civil parish and council of Machico, Bernardo Martins, based on the research for the dissertation he produced for the conclusion of his regional and local studies masters’ at the University of Madeira. The theme was the Centro de Informação Popular de Machico – a dynamizing centre for the 25 de Abril.

The exhibit is part of the Council Day celebrations, and remembers one of the most important episodes of the history of Machico.

You can now get to know the contents of four Madeira museums without ever leaving home. Medeira’s local government has just created the new online platform “Museus da Madeira”, which is basically a common online catalogue, made out of the databases of Museu Quinta das Cruzes, Casa-Museu Frederico de Freitas, Museu Etnografico da Madeira and Mudas – Museu de Arte Contemporanea da Madeira.

This platform will make it easier to research the inventory in each of the museums. Research can be made over three levels – free, oriented and advanced – with each user choosing the most appropriate, but enabling him to combine criteria so as to attain a more specific result.

According to the new site, “the simultaneous availability of constructed, mobile and immaterial items, through quality digital content, is now possible, and is part of the strategy of Madeira’s Direcção Regional de Cultura, with the content being designed both for academic access, but also for the general public, both locally and abroad.

This platform is thus “an important source of information, strengthening the preservation and valuation of historical items fundamental for the Madeiran cultural identity.

The Machico council will present its Strategic Development Plan for Nature Tourism/Ecotourism, a new branch of tourism as concerns the options for the following years.

The plan, which has been on the making for various months, will be used to add value and requalify Natural Sites (in terms of nature, landscapes and footpaths), as well as to ease the renewal of tourism in the council. The council has all it needs to be a reference destination in terms of Nature Tourism/Eco-Tourism, and thus enrich Madeira with different touristic products, capable of generating good financial result, generate better quality of life, as well as affording visitors – local, national or foreign – added security and information during their visits to the council.

To bet on the touristic renewal of the Machico council in terms of Nature Tourism/Ecotourism is to invest in its future, in its sustainability, besides keeping its population there, by giving it better future perspectives, creating jobs, and increasing economic and cultural impetus to the parishes of Machico, Porto da Cruz, Água de Pena, Santo da Serra and Caniçal.

The documents goes quite far to meet the needs of putative investors in the council that does the most in terms of nature tourism throughout the year, and a good example of this is the Enduro World cup, with one of its seven competitions in the world taking place in Machico in May.

The document is to be presented at the Museu da Baleia auditorium next Wednesday October 12^th at 17h30, will be instrumental in adding even more nature tourism enthusiasts to each of the five parishes of the council, all different, but all sharing a common identity.