[3] "We saw a land covered in trees until the sea and from that band the fog never descended from the range... We saw a great bay..."In calm waters of the early afternoon, on 1 July 1419, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira disembarked on the beach of Machico, beginning the era of Portuguese discoveries.

[4] The first settlers eked out a meagre subsistence, as a Franciscan friar noted: "This Town of Machico (head and seat of the first Captain Tristão) even if its small, with few users, it is well situated, happy, of many vegetable gardens and orchards, situated in the middle of a Ravine so fresh as in high elevations"Still in the 15th century, taking advantage of the abundant water and excellent climate, the first colonists began to cultivate sugar cane, and the first machinery used to process the pulp appeared immediately, facilitating the export to Europe.

[4] Although the Captaincy did not have the best lands to cultivate the plant (by 1494 one-fifth of regional production), the village that developed at Machico's beachhead was the centre of the processing of this spice.

[4] It was the Teixeira family that erected the first Matriz Church in Machico at the end of the 15th century, in honour of Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of Conception).

[4] In 1803, a landslide was responsible for the destruction of various homes, destroying hedges and walls, the main bridge along the ravine and the Chapel of Nosso Senhor dos Milagres.

Geomorphologically, the municipality is dominated by steeped and inclined topography, except in the Machico valley (where slopes are gentle), formed by two mountain ranges: in the east Pico do Facho and to the west the Queimada plateau.

Administratively, the municipality is governed from its seat in the city of Machico, but five local juntas de freguesia (civil parish government) handle issues in the communities of: Machico has several primary schools, junior and senior secondary schools, banks, main post office and public square, along with public beaches.