On the evidence of a portolan dated 1351 , preserved at Italy and particularly at Florence it is strongly believed that the island of Madeira had been discovered long before that date by Portuguese vessels under Genoese captains.
The story goes on and in 1419, when the two captains of Prince Henry the Navigator João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira had been accidentally driven by a storm to an island that they called Holy Port or Porto Santo in owe of their rescue from shipwreck. The following year an expedition had been sent to the island to populate it and as a result they took possession on behalf of the Portuguese crown.
On the 23rd of September 1433 the name ILHA DA MADEIRA
(“Island of the wood”) comes up in a map for the very first time in a document indicating the existence of the island.
In 1921 , the Austro –Hungarian Emperor Charles I had been deported to Madeira where he died one year later. 52 years later, in 1976 following the democratic revolution of 1974, Madeira became an autonomous country. |
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