Levada Vinte e Cinco Fontes

Madrei

Ribeira Dos Cedros N 32°46.150 W 17°07.500 ca. 1020 m a.s.l.

Course

At the Madre an access path comes down from the PR-13 to the Ribeira dos Cedros (Carga Palha)

The Madre is in a small cave with a small waterfall, fed by a Poco a little higher up. At first somewhat exposed and wild, then broad; a levada bridge over the Ribeira da Agua Negra ou do Risco and the inflow from the 25 Fontes, on along the levada wall, up to 2 metres high, to the descent to the Levada da Rocha Vermelha, through a fine tunnel of tree heather beside the high levada wall.

Inflow of a side levada from the Ribeira Grande. A small house stands here. Steps down and the crossing of the Ribeira Grande: the levada runs here partly piped and as a siphon a little above the path, then on along a broad path.

A pipe bringing drinking water from the Galeria do Rabacal disappears into the path beside the levada and comes out again in the Furado Novo.

Path from the Levada do Risco, turn-off of the partly destroyed path to the Levada da Rocha Vermelha, path from the Levada do Risco.

Shortly before the bridge over the Ribeira do Alecrim a steep vertical levada comes down from the Levada do Risco,

In the Ribeira do Alecrim extra water is led into the levada by a side levada.

Furado Novo (rider tunnel, 0.8 Km); here the pipe of the drinking-water main from the Galeria do Rabacal runs above the levada.

Levada house; here the path to the ER-211 begins, and the descent to the southern exit of the tunnel of the Levada da Rocha Vermelha

After the tunnel the levada branches off to the east. It continues to a stream crossing. Here in 2022 the water that had been led from the Camara da Carga into the stream bed was taken again and led into the levada.

The descent also begins there, more or less parallel to the levada, to the forebay of the Levada da Rocha Vermelha, and a few metres later the newly built path from the Camara da Carga comes in; the two penstocks from the Camara da Carga are passed underneath, and it ends in the forebay with a penstock to the Calheta I power station.

Because the building of the Calheta III power station took the two penstocks from the Camara da Carga at the Rabaçal car park out of service, and the planned pumping station to the reservoir is not yet finished, the water from this forebay is led over a waterfall into the Levada Vinte e Cinco Fontes and, with it, through the middle penstock in the Calheta I power station. That is why the terminal branch from the Furado Novo to the forebay at the end was rebuilt.

This has been the state of things since the Calheta I power station was built in 1953. Before that, from the building of the Furado Novo in 1877 until 1953, the levada split after the Furado Novo into an eastern and a western branch. Traces of the western branch can still be seen clearly; the popular walk from the car park on the ER-211 to the Furado Novo follows this branch, and after the ER-211 increasingly overgrown gravel tracks run along the former western branch. 2 terminal branches supplied the areas above Calheta.

The eastern branch ran from the Furado Novo to today's forebay of the Levada Vinte e Cinco Fontes. The continuation east is now hardly possible to make out; the terminal branches led towards Arco da Calheta. An important terminal branch ran from today's forebay over the Lombo do Atouguia to Sao Joao, where it also supplied the Moinho de Sao Joao with water. A levada onto the Lombo do Doutor also branched off this levada.

When the Calheta I power station was built, together with the Levada Nova West and the Levada Nova East, the two important terminal branches were taken out of service in 1953. The levadas on the Lombo do Atougaia and the Lombo do Doutor are today also fed from the Levada Nova East.

End

Collecting basin before the penstock ca. 960 m a.s.l.

Function and use

Inflow to the Calheta I power station; irrigation and water supply of the south coast via the Levada Nova West and the Levada Nova East.

Access

• Descent from the PR-13 (turn-off from the ER-209)

• There is an access from the Pico Rabacal that meets the levada just after the 25 springs (Vereda do Pau Seco). It was described in 2015 by the Amigos da Natureza

• Ascent from the Levada da Rocha Vermelha at this board

• Path from the Levada do Risco

• Path from the Levada da Rocha Vermelha, which is partly buried

• Rabaçal house; descent at the back by the toilet huts to the Levada do Risco and to the Levada do Furado Velho and on to the Levada Vinte e Cinco Fontes,

• To the Furado Novo from the south, access from the ER-211 or

• Ascent from the southern tunnel exit of the Levada da Rocha Vermelha

• Ascent from the forebay of the Levada da Rocha Vermelha

• Access from the Camara da Carga and the zigzag path after the stream crossing

• Shortcut from the path from the forebay of the Levada da Rocha Vermelha

• Pathless, along the penstocks from the Camara da Carga, from above or from below

Condition

Demanding from the Madre to the 25 springs, easy after that

Historical notes

From 1877 the Levada Vinte e Cinco Fontes leads the water through the Furado Novo do Rabacal and irrigated the area around Calheta, Estreito da Calheta and Arco da Calheta.

From 1953 the water of the Levada do Risco is brought in before the Furado Novo do Rabacal by a vertical levada. The water flows, together with the water of the other Rabaçal levadas, to the Calheta I power station.

See also Historical development of the levadas around Rabaçal and on the south side between Ribeira Brava and Ponta do Pargo

Remarks

From 1877 the Furado Novo do Rabacal (rider tunnel) was an important crossing to the south side for the people of the north coast (mainly Seixal).