Madeira Madeira Madeira ( , ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira ("Região Autónoma da Madeira"), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with the Azores). It is an archipelago situated in the north Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Portugal. Its total population was estimated in 2011 at 267,785. The capital of Madeira is Funchal, which is located on the main island's south coast. The archipelago is just under north of Tenerife, Canary Islands. Bermuda and Madeira, a few time zones apart, are the only land in the Atlantic on the 32nd parallel north. It includes the islands
History of Madeira and, Madeira being described, they made for it, and took possession on behalf of the Portuguese crown, together with captain Bartolomeu Perestrello. The islands started to be settled circa 1420 or 1425. On September 23, 1433, the name "Ilha da Madeira" (Madeira Island or "island of the wood") appears in a map, by the first time, in a document. The three captain-majors had led, in the first trip, the respective families, a small group of people of the minor nobility, people of modest conditions and some old prisoners of the kingdom. To gain the minimum conditions for the development of