Caniçal

Caniçal () is a civil parish in the municipality of Machico in the Portuguese island of Madeira. The population in 2011 was 3,924, in an area of 11.85 km2. Equidistant from Funchal and Santana (20 km), the community is connected to these centres by the Regional 109 roadway. Caniçal is now the principal cargo port in Madeira. Living in this parish is a 109-year-old man as of March 7, 2021.

==History== Early documents of the lands of Caniçal came from references to the region's use as a hunting preserve of rich landowners; the lands where the hereditary donation to the sons of the first Captain-donatário of Machico. Gaspar Frutuoso in Saudades da Terra, mentions Caniçal in these terms: “...it was [an area] of a lot of hunting of rabbit, partridge, peacocks and many wild boar, that one affirms that it was the best hunting lands in all of Portugal. There was no lack of water in those lands, that during early settlement, in order to irrigate the sugar cane in this village (Machico) and for Caniçal, that the levada created from where it sprung to the village, was four and a half leagues..." These wild lands were peppered with toponymic references to its use as hunting grounds or natural regions: Dragoal or Serrado dos Marmeleiros, for example. The first area to be inhabited was the south-central coast of Caniçal, at the edge of the Ponta de São Lourenço. In those lands, which were donated to Vasco Moniz (the son of Tristão Vaz Teixeira), the first of the oldest farms were established (5 September 1489).