Caniçal  Caniçal () is a civil parish in the municipality of Machico in the Portuguese island of Madeira. The population in 2011 was 3,924, in an area of 11.85 km2. Equidistant from Funchal and Santana (20 km), the community is connected to these centres by the Regional 109 roadway. Caniçal is now the principal cargo port in Madeira. Early documents of the lands of Caniçal came from references to the region's use as a hunting preserve of rich landowners; the lands where the hereditary donation to the sons of the first Captain-donatário of Machico. Gaspar Frutuoso in Saudades da Terra, mentions Caniçal in these terms:  The first area to be inhabited was the south-central coast of Caniçal, at the edge of the Ponta de São Lourenço. In those lands, which were donated to Vasco Moniz (the son of Tristão Vaz Teixeira), the first of the oldest farms were established (5 September 1489). It was not the importance of its community or level of development that justified the creation of the first chapel in Caniçal: its distance, number of people (ten couples) and difficulties in communication, justified the construction by regal charter on 25 August 1527. Even by 1561, when the parish was established, the community only included consisted of fifteen couples. The Chapel of São Sebastião, founded by Garcia Moniz in the first quarter of the 16th century, became the parish seat. It was actually constructed in the area of "Igreja Velha" where the older temple was destroyed by pirates. In 1594, the chapel was remodelled or reconstructed, but was once again destroyed during the 1748 earthquake, requiring the founding of a new church. In the 16th century, the primitive chapel of Nossa Senhora da Piedade was constructed by local fishermen who had promised to erect a chapel in the name of the "Santissima Virgem", after a group were saved from death by "divine intervention". These votes of thanksgiving were also supported by an annual procession (around September), in the name of Nossa Senhora dos Pescadores, which at times included a flotilla of boats As the community expanded further west, the parish built the new Church, around 1749. It was during the mid-1700s that the Marquess of Pombal projected and ordered construction of military port and arsenal, in the area known as Abra.