Hey there my Hive friends and followers!
Almost 3 weeks since the last episode of my Magical Madeira photography series, way too longer than I would wish but it is what it is. Today, however, I´m happy to finally roll out a new, freshly minted post about this fascinating Portuguese island.
I have already provided with you with some brief introduction into the landscapes and seascapes of the island and today, we will take a closer look at what probably is the most iconic and photographed architecture of the island - the famous Santana houses.
Known as "casas tipicas" in the local language, these picturesque little houses have been traditionally built and used on Madeira for centuries, according to some sources even since the very times when the island was discovered, which was in 1419.
Used mostly by the rural people and peasants, the houses were traditionally made from materials that were locally abundant - mostly wood and thatches. The roof was designed with such an unusually sharp angle for purpose - it drained down the rainwater, keeping the interior of the house dry and safe.
These lovely huts are sometimes known as "Santana houses" because Santana, a little coastal town located in the northern part of the island, is where most of these houses are still found even today but in the past, this type of houses was common all over the island. Let me now show you some pictures of these iconic pieces of Madeiran architecture that I captured in Santana.
Adorable, right? I know. But here comes the bummer. I had no idea when I was there, clicking these shots but later on, when I was doing my research on this topic, I figured out that some (maybe even most) of these houses found in Santana are actually fakes. Or imitations if you will. I visited a bunch of these houses and even if I had known though, I would´t have probably been able to tell which were real and which were fakes. They all look very authentic but I guess that those that are open to public (there are actually little souvenir shops in some of them) are the fake ones while the locked ones are the originals that are still used by the local farmers. But yeah, it´s a bit confusing and I must admit that it also makes Santana kind of a tourist trap (quite literally) but on the other hand, just the fact that this type of houses, built centuries ago, is still to be found and used somewhere on Madeira is fascinating and makes visit of Santana worth it as it gives you an opportunity to check out these iconic pieces of architecture from up close.
As you have probably noticed in the pictures, the surrounding of the houses is beautiful as well with various flowers blooming all over the place, especially the blue hydrangeas, one of the natural symbols of Madeira. The colorful background only makes the whole place look even more like something from a fairytale and even though that not everything is as genuine as it may seem, it´s still a part of the island that visitors shouldn´t miss out on ;)
By the way, I tried really hard to take photos of the houses without strangers in them but for reasons mentioned in my previous posts, we visited Madeira in the very peak of the European holiday season and all the touristy spots on the island (including this one) were super crowded so most of those shots have some unsuspecting photobombers in them, sorry about that :/
I hope that you learned something new about architecture and culture of Madeira thanks to this post and I will see you guys in the next episode of my little photography series about this extraordinary island ;)
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