PR 23 - Levada da Azenha

Almost in the heart of the city, following the slopes overlooking the Ribeira do Caniço, this trail preserves the remnants of an ancestral rural way of life. The ruins of Moinho da Vitória are eloquent testimony to a distant history, following the entrepreneurial drive of Prince Henry the Navigator who, according to tradition, had ordered the establishment of the first watermills in Caniço.
The trail transports us to an era of anonymous protagonists and struggles that extended throughout entire lifetimes. The stone washing places, scattered along the levada, are landmarks of harsh times when domestic tasks extended into public spaces as community rituals. Along the route, cultivated fields underscore the role that agriculture continues to play in the local economic dynamics.