There was a time, not so long ago, when the name Madeira rang in courts across Europe, and not because it was Cristiano Ronaldo’s hometown. Funchal, the capital of this Portuguese archipelago of exotic anatomy and trade winds off the northwestern coast of Africa, has been mastering embroidery for centuries. A textile tradition based on the rigor and excellence of its artisans, the embroidery, it developed among the first settlements on the island during the 15th century. The English merchants who settled in Madeira soon saw the great potential hidden in these delicate thread works printed on cotton and linen, with which they made everything from tablecloths to shirts, bedding and children’s clothes. It was the daughter of the merchant Joseph Phelps, Miss Elizabeth, who promoted his production on a larger scale by creating a school in her home, where she taught how to embroider original designs brought from England.
Following the success of the Madeiran industry at the first World Exhibition in London, held in 1851, the embroidery trade became more dynamic throughout the United Kingdom and subsequently throughout the Old Continent, with a public increasingly fascinated by the delicacy and precision of its stitches. This artisanal legacy, which is passed down from generation to generation in the over 10,000 embroiderers spread across the island, is still active thanks to companies such as Bordal, open to the public since 1962.
A few steps from this emblematic workshop, towards Rua da Alfândega, one of the city’s most famous factories, Oliveira Bordados Enmaderienses, was built more than 400 years ago. On this stone street that is home to the famous Blandy’s winery, the world’s largest producer of Madeira wine known for its Malvasia, the terrace of the Funchal Oldtown hotel, from 2023, will give a new look to the former embroidery factory and five other properties in the historic center of the island.
The endless hours among threads and patterns experienced in the past by their workshops have given way to this urban refuge from the Barceló group where you can relax and start a journey around the island. After an intense renovation carried out by the local architecture firm Atlante y Barra4 and the DCD Interiorismo company led by the Sevillian Ernesto de Ceano, this luxury accommodation structure has maintained both the original facades in the whitish color typical of the island, and the umbrellas on the windows or the pavilion roofs, with the aim of enriching the public space that surrounds it without altering it.
A project inspired by the bowels of the building itself, as some elements were recovered during the excavations of the basement and which now make a beautiful display in its lobby. This is the case of some spans of the old Madeira road, integrated into the paving of the central patio; coins and glazed ceramics from the 16th century, or a wall-mounted shoe rack that served as a mud cleaner and retains its original location in one of the breakfast rooms.
A walk in the Mercado dos Lavradores, the largest on the island and where the seeds of fruits such as pitanga (that species of black cherry that floods juices and ice creams) coexist with food shops and “deceptive” haberdashery shops where you can try a cancel (drink made from cane liqueur, honey and lemon juice), is the reflection of the cult of craftsmanship that this region offers. It’s hard not to come across a shop window full of wicker bags and other wicker items on the streets of Funchal, glimpse miniature dolls carved in regional costumes or that particular hat called ear bar, recognizable by its small ears and used by farmers throughout the Portuguese archipelago.
The decoration of this hotel boutiques It is also a cabinet of curiosities about local folklore. Like the headboards of the beds in the rooms, the tablecloths that say good morning every morning at breakfast and the staff uniforms are embellished with stitching embroidery. Even the walls adorned with drawings provided by the Museum of Embroidery and Crafts, or the menu announcing its list of signature cocktails, seal its union with this centuries-old craft with an artisanal touch.
From the roof, where its infinity pool competes for prominence with privileged views of the cathedral and the port, you can contemplate a piece of that small immensity that the island contains. With seven microclimates concentrated in just over 700 square kilometers, involving both fertile soil for vines and mountains scratched by volcanoes and farms, Madeira is proudly nicknamed the Isle of Flowers. The purple carpet that accompanies the fall of the jacarandas in autumn on the streets of Funchal, the proteas and strelizias that fascinate with their extraterrestrial buds or that almost infinite path of hydrangeas that grow wild along the streets are a symbol of this Portuguese region at the height of its churches and monuments, which every year dresses up with the Flower Festival which has taken place between April and May since the 1950s.
Its botanical garden, in Quinta do Bom Sucesso, or the tropical one in Monte Palace, are places where it is possible to fully appreciate its beauty and be inebriated by the scent of nature all year round. This latter park located on top of a hill overlooking the bay of Funchal was the exotic whim of the English consul Charles Murray, who wanted to transform this property acquired in the 18th century into his recreational estate for absolute enjoyment. In 1897 it passed into the hands of the merchant Alfredo Guilherme Rodrigues, author of the sumptuous residence that would later become the hotel called Monte Palace Hotel. The over 100,000 botanical specimens that roam its seven hectares – with unique specimens such as centenarian cycads, considered living fossils with 280 million years of history behind them – are flanked by majestic flamingos, peacocks and koi fish native to Asia that swim in its lakes. A place that denotes the mind of a great aesthete and where extravagance silences the senses with very disparate examples of art scattered throughout the estate. Whether in the form of Portuguese Gothic niches and arches, murals and tile-decorated avenues made in Portugal over the last five centuries or through the contemporary work of Madeiran artist Ricardo Barbeito.
Madeira’s laurel forest, an ancient temperate forest declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, offers the most beautiful hiking routes in the area among cloudscapes not to be missed before departure. The reception of Funchal Oldtown greets you with the memory of this magnetic forest in its roof garden and the micro-perforated plates that simulate the branches of these trees. An intense green in contrast with the indigo that colors the bar and the carpet, in homage to the Atlantic Ocean that bathes the island. The same sea that has inspired the work of these pioneering women for centuries, the embroidery.
