the cliff you've got right under your feet
There's a moment when you look down and the ground isn't there. Or rather: it is, but it's glass, and below is 580 metres of near-vertical cliff above the Atlantic. That's what the Miradouro do Cabo Girão offers, and it works on everyone, even those who swear they don't have a fear of heights.
The cape sits on the south coast of Madeira, between Câmara de Lobos and Funchal, and the steel and glass observation platform was installed in 2012, during a redevelopment of the original 1938 viewpoint. Before that, the place was already well known, but the transparent floor changed the scale of the experience. Now you actually understand what 580 metres of vertical drop means.
Down below, spread across the base of the cliff, are three fajãs, patches of land reclaimed from the sea by successive rockfalls over centuries. Most of the stone that built the Sé do Funchal, the Palácio de São Lourenço and the Forte de São Tiago came from here, quarried from the base of this cape and transported by sea. The place name has its own history too: this is where the first navigators turned back on the first day of exploring the Madeira coast, and the point remained as a reference for the return journey.
Access to the fajãs was exclusively by sea until 2003, when a cable car was built. If you have the time and legs for it, it's worth realising that what you see from the viewpoint is inhabited, cultivated, and very different from the angle looking down.
the name, the stone, the rockfalls
The promontory entered the island's history early. The first explorers used it as a reference point for the return journey, and that role as a geographical landmark held for centuries. Later, it was its base that supplied Funchal with raw material: the stone quarried here ended up in some of the island's most recognisable buildings, from the Quinta das Cruzes to the Town Hall, from the Convento de Santa Clara to the chapel in the Parque de Santa Catarina.
On 4 March 1930, a large-scale rockfall generated a wave of around 30 metres that killed about 24 people at Praia do Vigário in Câmara de Lobos. The fajã that resulted from that collapse is called Fajã das Beberas. That's what you're looking at down below when you look through the glass.
what you'll find
- glass platform over 580 metres of vertical cliff
- direct view over the base fajãs and the open Atlantic
- wind, even on sunny days on the coast
- car park with road access from the south coast road
