# Criação Velha and the Moinho do Frade
Question: What is at Criação Velha, the vineyard parish south of Madalena?

URL: https://picoisland.pt/villages/criacao-velha
Status: verified
Last verified: 2026-10-03

Criação Velha is a parish of Madalena municipality on Pico's west coast, just south of Madalena town. Its shoreline is one of the two core areas of the UNESCO vineyard landscape, inscribed in 2004, and the red-capped Moinho do Frade windmill stands among its basalt-walled vine plots. It had 809 residents in 2021.

## The parish south of the ferry town

Criação Velha is the parish immediately south of [Madalena](/villages/madalena), and it belongs to
the same municipality. Its parish council puts it 2.50 km from the municipal seat, close enough
that the town and the vineyards blur into each other along the coast road. To the north it borders
the parish of Madalena and to the south the parish of Candelária.

It was made a parish on 20 November 1799, but the council's own history says the settlement is
far older than that. The name points the same way: a *criação* was grazing land, and *velha* means
old.

## The vineyards and the windmill

For a visitor, Criação Velha means one thing first. Its shore is one of the two areas usually named
as the heart of the [UNESCO vineyard landscape](/wine/unesco-vineyard-landscape), the other being
the Lajido at [Santa Luzia](/villages/santa-luzia) on the north coast. Here the black basalt walls
of the currais run in a tight grid from the sea inland, each small enclosure sheltering a few vines
from the salt wind.

Standing among them is the **Moinho do Frade**, a windmill with a red cap and sails on a basalt
base. Wikidata records it as a listed heritage monument under the name Moinho de vento da Canada do
Monte. The parish council names it, together with the eighteenth-century parish church of Nossa
Senhora das Dores, the chapel of Nossa Senhora do Rosário and the Império do Espírito Santo, as
the parish's main heritage.

The windmill stands on the marked vineyard trail described in the [hiking](/hiking) section. It reads completely differently on foot: from the road the currais are a
stone field, and from inside them the scale of the hand labour is the point.

## How it fits a trip

Criação Velha is the easiest piece of the vineyard landscape to reach without planning. It is next
to the ferry town, so it works as a first walk on arrival day or as the half day before a crossing
back to Faial. Pair it with a visit to [Picowines](/wine/picowines) on the other side of Madalena,
and with the [wine section](/wine) for the adegas that take visits by appointment. The parish
council also counts the [Gruta das Torres](/things-to-do/gruta-das-torres) lava tube among the
parish's attractions, inland and uphill from the vineyards.

There is little here to base yourself in compared with Madalena itself. For the other end of the
island see [Lajes do Pico](/villages/lajes-do-pico), [Piedade](/villages/piedade) and
[São Roque do Pico](/villages/sao-roque-do-pico), and [Pico's villages](/villages) for the
comparison.

## What this page does not tell you

The parish council's own pages give two different areas for the parish. The figure above is the one
its history page and Wikidata agree on. Trail length, waymarking codes and the windmill's opening
arrangements have not been checked against a primary source, so they are absent rather than
estimated.

## Sources

- Municipality: Madalena (source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1998602)
- Parish population: 809 (2021 census) (source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1998602)
- Parish area: 16.39 km² (source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1998602)
- Coordinates: 38.5167° N, 28.5333° W (source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1998602)
- Made a parish: 20 November 1799 (source: https://www.jf-criacaovelha.pt/freguesia/historia)
- Distance from the municipal seat: 2.50 km (source: https://www.jf-criacaovelha.pt/freguesia/caracterizacao)
- Inscribed: 2004 (source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2448665)
- Moinho do Frade, coordinates: 38.5142° N, 28.5340° W (source: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q66815752)