The island’s industrial free trade zone (IFTZ), an immaculately maintained site equipped with a new container port and only a few minutes by motorway from Funchal airport, epitomises modern Madeira, a region that has been transformed by massive investments in infrastructure.

But the zone, overlooking a deep bay at Caniçal, a former whaling centre on the south-eastern tip of the island, maintains a strong link with the distant past.