Monte Tour

Monte sits 550 metres above Funchal, cooler and quieter than the city below, draped in a richness of vegetation that still surprises visitors arriving for the first time. In the 19th century it was where Funchal's wealthy retreated from the summer heat — a village of quintas and garden walls and the kind of carefully cultivated stillness that prosperous people have always sought. That character has not entirely disappeared.

The ascent from Funchal is theatrical. The tuk tuk climbs through streets that narrow gradually as the city thins and the vegetation thickens, rooftops spreading below until Funchal's grid of terracotta and white has resolved itself into a pattern against the blue of the harbour. The contrast between the seafront city and this hilltop world is one of the things that makes Monte so quietly compelling.

The Church of Nossa Senhora do Monte is Madeira's most important pilgrimage site — a baroque façade at the top of a dramatic stone staircase that pilgrims have climbed on their knees for generations. Inside is the venerated image of Our Lady of Monte, patron saint of Madeira, and a sanctuary that has drawn the faithful from across the island for centuries.

In the church's imperial chapel rests the tomb of Karl I, the last Emperor of Austria-Hungary. He died in exile here in 1922, aged 34, having refused to abdicate his throne despite the collapse of the Habsburg empire after the First World War. He arrived in Madeira gravely ill and in poverty, and he never left. His tomb, visited quietly in a hilltop village church above the Atlantic, is one of the most quietly remarkable historical sites in the entire Atlantic — the final resting place of an emperor who lost everything and held to his convictions until the end.

The Monte Palace Tropical Garden occupies what were once the grounds of a 19th-century palace — today a remarkable collection of koi ponds, azulejo-tiled pathways, endemic Madeiran plants, cycads, palms, and flora gathered from Africa and Asia. The garden climbs the hillside in terraced sections, each with its own character, and the views out over Funchal and the bay from the upper terraces are extraordinary.

At the top of the Monte village sits the departure point for the carreiros do Monte — the wicker toboggan descent that has operated since the 1850s. Two carreiros dressed in white linen guide a wicker basket on wooden runners down the steep hillside road towards Funchal, a descent that is equal parts transport, tradition, and spectacle. The toboggan is optional and not included in the tour price, but your guide will bring you to the departure point and explain everything.