This is Sunday and the Weather App says it's the best day of our trip. We buy ferry tickets to shuttle the rental car to the neighboring Ilha do Pico, home to the gigantic conical peak visible from the Porto da Horta. The ferry from Horta lands in the town of Madalena (pop 6,332 in 2021), and the schedule shows our departure at 7:30AM and our return at 6:00PM – the trip takes about thirty minutes.
Further note, there is almost no Google 'Street View' or Apple 'Look Around' for these central islands. Our trip research is thus limited.
The bit of ocean between the islands is called the Canal do Faial. The waters there are calmer than we expected, given it's the 'open Atlantic', but the wind is something else – very difficult to hold the iPhone steady. The crossing takes us directly into the sunrise, and the colors in either direction are like two worlds, hot and cold. Two distinctive rocky formations frame the harbor of Madalena: the Ilhéu em Pé (standing) and Ilhéu Deitado (reclining).
As we approach, the clouds over the Ponta do Pico dissolve, and the entire pyramid is exposed, backlit in yellow and violet. And hanging just to the south is the crescent moon.
We offload the car and park near the igreja to explore the waterfront. As we turn to look back toward the igreja, the sun breaks the horizon behind the Ponta, which casts a sharp, theatric shadow into the morning sky (top image) – we've never seen anything like it.
The town is whitewashed and trimmed in the same dusky stone and clay tile roofs seen in Horta, but there are moments of color and whimsy all around, as well as a general preference for fire-engine red doors and shutters. Near the igreja is a capela topped by a bird rather than a cross, and a nautical mural in the semicircular transom. Over the door to the Câmara Municipal is the royal crest of Portugal. And behind the igreja is a park, the Jardim dos Maroiços – maroiços are stepped mounds of piled volcanic rocks that predate the arrival of the Portuguese.
From the Jardim, we walk down to the Areia Larga (wide sand), and as the rising sun clears the small houses there, it becomes impossible to take a picture without our shadows.
Seems an excellent time to step indoors, so we return to the church, the Igreja Matriz de Santa Maria Madalena (seventeenth and nineteenth centuries), with its cream-tones tiled facade and spires. While Horta's churches face east toward the looming volcano, Madalena's faces west, where its waters have more presence than the land beyond.
Inside, our gaze is immediately fixed on the small stained-glass portal above the alter, with the rising light beaming across the ceiling vault from the top of the royal Brasão de Portugal. It seems larger inside that out, with aisles and central nave, a pair of raised pulpits in the center arches, and a series of shallow capelas laterais. Under the south tower is the baptistry, and to the north is a freestanding statue of (possibly?) São José holding the Christ child. Nearby, emerging from a flat, basalt arch are the figures representing Nossa Senhora de Fátima, the Virgin with Her rosary appearing before the shepherd children.
Perhaps the most intriguing capela is in the center of the south aisle and depicts Nossa Senhora de Lourdes with the young Santa Bernadette at the grotto. The capela is dramatically lit by a small portal and we can read the French, "Je suis l'Immaculee Conception" in Her halo.
In the capela on the other side of this, the female representation continues with the virgin martyr Santa Cecília (with palm and harp) flanked by (maybe) Santa Teresa de Lisieux (with roses and crucifix) and another sainted nun (there's very little info available online, but it's good to see the ladies in good company).
Next to this is the Capela das Almas, with São Miguel Arcanjo dispatching justice to the wicked. And next to that is the Capela do Santíssimo Sacramento.
At the end of the south aisle are the Madonna and Child, crowned. And at the end of the north aisle is Sagrado Coroção de Jesus, giving a blessing to a praying nun, who we assume is Maria do Divino Coração. These two capelas are wonderfully color matched.
While the capelas laterais are from the nineteenth century, the retábulo mor (altarpiece) survives from the seventeenth century; visually, it is richer and better integrated with the architecture. At the center, in front of a wavy starburst is Santa Maria Madalena, in a 'penitent' pose, popular during the late Baroque. She stands bright, looking skyward, within a dimmer archway, surrounded by a paneled, gilt vault.
There are murais de azulejos on either side which illustrate scenes from her appearances in the Gospels: on the right (south) she is 'converted' by Christ and joins the Apostles in His ministry, and on the left (north) she is witness to the Resurrection and sees Christ before His Ascension. Additionally, the scenes are lit by two small, stained-glass windows which further depict: the Unção de Jesus (anointing), and the another scene of the Resurrection in which the banner reads "Noli me Tanger" (touch me not).
Hino de Santa Maria Madalena …Ó Maria MadalenaPede ao Divino Jesus,Que nos dê com Seu perdãoA esperança da eterna luz.Ó Maria MadalenaAlma envolta em claridade,Sê o nosso amparo e guiaAté ao Sol da Verdade.Ó Maria MadalenaDe Jesus nunca esquecida,Tuas lágrimas são estrelasQue dão luz à nossa vida …Ó Maria MadalenaRoga ao Sumo Redentor,Que acenda os clarões da pazApague os ódios e a dor.[Hymn of St. Mary Magdalene...O Mary MagdaleneAsk the Divine Jesus,May you give us with your forgivenessThe hope of eternal light.O Mary MagdaleneSoul wrapped in clarity,Be our support and guideTo the Sun of Truth.O Mary MagdaleneOf Jesus never forgotten,Your tears are starsThat give light to our lives...O Mary MagdalenePray to the Great Redeemer,May it light the flashes of peaceErase the hatred and pain.]
Next, we drive just east of the town to the Museu do Vinho to learn the fascinating history of the curraletas (stone carrels) which checker the landscape. Here, during the seventeenth century, the frades Carmelitas (Carmelite monks) establish a winery by constructing a labyrinth of basalt 'basins' in which they grow their grapes. The curraletas hold warmth and fresh water and protect the plants from the Pico's brutal wind – a kind of improvised greenhouse.
The gate is guarded by an old gnarly tree, which looks very much like the Metrosídero (Pohutukawa, New Zealand Christmas tree) which we first saw at Monserrate in Sintra – with hanging, aerial roots. And by now, we've seen enough of Madalena to anticipate the bright red trim.
The compound consists of the Casa Conventual dos Carmelitas, Edifício dos Alambiques (distillery), Edifício do Lagar (press), as well as the Barbie-pink Mirante e Vinha and the Mata de Dragoeiros (dragon trees). The area is beautifully clean and organized; the very friendly docent gives us a set of laminated cards to explain the stations.
But, being abstinent, we mostly enjoy the magnificent grounds and the clear air.
The dragoeiros are just past and behind the Edifício dos Alambiques, and are quite a unique sight, especially among the copper containers and dark rocks. Just to one side of the reception area is a sprawling specimen, and the docent tells us this is one of the oldest examples in the world (maybe as old as a millennium) – simply stunning.
In the Edifício do Lagar, the old wooden presses are astonishingly preserved, and behind the dragoeiros is the old tanque. On the way, we find a a colony of lizards sunning on the masonry.
Our drive along the south coast of Pico includes a stop to inspect a group of maroiços. We turn off the pavement and onto a narrow sandy, earthy-red road. Among the cows, the mounds form part of the fence system that separates the grazing fields. We wonder if and how much the farmers have taken stones from these pre-historic supplies. Given that, it is amazing that the stepped forms are still intact.
Our lunch stop is in Lajes do Pico (pop 4,342 in 2021). Like Horta, this is an old whaling town. Lajes' waterfront includes a lengthy, west-facing marsh, and the town maintains a moinho there; the working harbor is at the north with views to the Montanha do Pico.
We have a few minutes and make a stop at the Igreja da Santíssima Trindade (nineteenth century). The capelas share several figures with Madalena: Nossa Senhora de Lourdes (grotto), Nossa Senhora do Carmo (scapular), Nossa Senhora de Fátima (children and rosary), and Santa Teresa de Lisieux (cross and roses).
The capela mor features the Virgin Mary and São José on either side of the Crucifix. At the top of the gold retábulo is the Olho da Providência.
After lunch, we head west along the northern slope of the Montanha on the Estrada Longitudinal (R3-2ª). We can just make out the Ilha de São Jorge on one side and the summit on the other. We turn off the highway and onto a road 'paved' with rough volcanic gravel – not a dirt road, but not smooth at all. From time to time, there are gates and drainage grates made from pipes. The slopes are lumpy and viridescent, and there are several smaller caldeiras dotting the desolate terrain.
In fact, there is one just by the side of the road, which we stop to investigate. The pictures might suggest 'lush and quiet' but there is violence in this heaven. Vapors roar past like a river rapids, leaving our fingers and faces sticky. Even inside the hollow of the cone, it is hard to take steady pictures. And we realize why there is only ground cover here: very little stays standing except the mountain.
Our destination is the Casa da Montanha, a registration point at the trailhead of the Trilho do Pico. From this station, hikers are checked-in and given GPS devices before they ascend. A rowdy group of young men asks us to take a picture. We watch as they clear the beefy concrete stairs up to the rusty steel 'winged sculpture' that marks the start of the Trilho.
A comfortable cafe with large glass windows and a terrace shares the station building; this is as far as we go.
There's time for one last stop before the ferry leaves at six. The Moinho do Frade is another in the series of red, 'teapot' windmills that we've seen on both Pico and Faial, and that date from the sixteenth century. These days, the moinho de vento is motionless, and with its stairs and stoop, serves only as a miradouro. It centers a walled circle is in the middle of a broad zone of currais (ie, curraletas) on the edge of the island's western shore.
Though introduced at the Museu earlier in the day, we are unprepared for the scale of construction. We imagine the frades as their calloused hands lay down this grid of craggy rocks, with prayers for a bounty of grapes and for God. The regular geometry flows over the misshapen terrain creating an intriguing interplay of line, texture, and light, between the ocean and the volcano.
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