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Cais da Oliveira pier The Cais da Oliveira pier, located in Caniço de Baixo, had a fundamental role in the history of the Region and this year was the target of improvement works O Cais da Oliveira, localizado no Caniço de Baixo, teve um papel fundamental na história da Região e foi este ano alvo de obras de beneficiação TEXT CLÁUDIA CAIRES SOUSA
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ntil the mid-twentieth century it was an essential point of access to the parish of Caniço, one of the first villages to be populated in Madeira in the fifteenth century, at a time when the main access to different coastal locations were made mainly by sea. We are talking about the Cais da Oliveira pier in Caniço, which was recently renovated by the Santa Cruz Town Hall in order to ensure its primary function: accessibility. The story goes that Prince Henry donated to Tristão Vaz and his descendants the Captaincy of Machico, and that at that
time an olive stake was used to mark the dividing line that extended from the southeast point of the island, Caniço, to Ponta do Tristão in Porto Moniz. The first point thus received the name Ponta da Oliveira, where there were abundant wild olive trees or Zambujeiros (Olea maderensis), an endemic species of Madeira. This site is bathed by the clear and transparent waters of the Garajau Natural Reserve, the first Marine Reserve in the country, which was born in 1986 from a group of divers from Madeira who came together to stop the phenomenon of the www.essential-madeira.com 20
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té meados do século XX foi um ponto essencial para o acesso à freguesia do Caniço, uma das primeiras localidades a ser povoada na Madeira, no século XV, numa altura em que os principais acessos às diferentes localidades costeiras realizavam-se sobretudo através do mar. Falamos do Cais da Oliveira, no Caniço, que foi recentemente alvo de obras de reabilitação por parte da Câmara Municipal de Santa Cruz, de modo a assegurar a sua primeira função: a acessibilidade. Reza a história que o infante D. Henrique doou a Tristão Vaz e aos seus descendentes a
