Santa Cruz, Madeira Autonomous Region, Portugal

🇵🇹 Santa Cruz is a municipality, a parish and a city in the eastern part of the island of Madeira. It is the second most populous municipality, behind Funchal.

History "… passing a turn in the land, they entered a cover in the beach, in which they saw a deliteful valley covered in the trees in order, where they found on land a few older fallen columns, from whom the captain ordered the construction a cross, which they raised to the heights of a tree, giving the place the name of Santa Cruz, where later that founded the noble village".

To commemorate the construction of this cross, a second cross was raised, of marble, but was later destroyed, around 1889.

Geography It is located south-east of Santana, south-west of Machico and north-east of the regional capital (Funchal); it is linked by an expressway to Funchal and Machico, as well as an ancillary road linking it to Santana. Urban sprawl from Funchal extends along Santa Cruz's western frontier, while the eastern part of municipality is the base for Madeira's international airport.

Five parishes comprise the municipality of Santa Cruz: • Camacha • Caniço (city) • Gaula • Santa Cruz (city) (includes the offshore Desertas Islands) • Santo António da Serra.

Economy Agriculture and fishing are still considered the primary industries in this region, although widespread expansion of tourism in the south, and the development of the international airport has increased the number of commercial and tourist-related activities (primarily in the city of Santa Cruz).