Santana (), short form for ''Santa Ana'' (meaning

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

along the northern coast of the island of

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

, in the Portuguese archipelago of the same name. The population in 2011 was 7,719, in an area of .

Geography

Santana includes six parishes, within a rugged mountainous environment, most occupying river-valleys: *

Arco de São Jorge Arco may refer to: Places * Arco, Trentino, a town in Trentino, Italy * Arco, Idaho, in the United States * Arco, Minnesota, a city in the United States * ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California, home of the Sacramento Kings Companies * ARCO (bran ...

* Faial * Ilha * Santana - the parish (and town) has a population of 3,275 (in 2011), in an area of 19.01 km² * São Jorge *

São Roque do Faial São Roque do Faial is a parish in the municipality of Santana, Madeira, Santana on the island of Madeira Island, Madeira. The population in 2011 was 736, in an area of 15.61 km2. It is located 3 km southeast of Santana. Administrative ...

Santana parish has the largest number residents, while Arco de São Jorge is both the smallest, physically, and has the lowest number of residents,Santana and Arco de São Jorge are also located in the higher altitudes in the municipality. while Faial is the largest parish. Santana is known for the traditional homes constructed with sloping triangular rooftops, and protected with straw. These were mainly rural homes, used by local farmers, during the settlement of the island, with white-painted walls, red doors and windows with blue trim. Most of the surviving buildings are tourist attractions, and maintained (for example, the straw roofs are replaced every four to five years).

Economy

A tourist-themed park was constructed to exhibit examples of the island's early history and culture; the Madeira Theme Park is an ample area, on of land, where visitors discover the cultures of Madeira and

Porto Santo Porto Santo Island () is a Portuguese island and municipality northeast of Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean; it is the northernmost and easternmost island of the archipelago of Madeira, located in the Atlantic Ocean west of Europe an ...

. This includes exhibits on the island's history, artifacts used in daily life and cultural presentations, in a scenic environment.

Notable citizens

* Teodósio de Gouveia (1889 in São Jorge - 1962 in

Lourenço Marques Maputo () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed ov ...

) -

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

for

, and first resident Cardinal in Africa.

References

{{authority control Towns in Portugal Madeira Island Municipalities of Madeira