Boaventura, São Vicente
Boaventura (Portuguese for Bonaventure) is a civil parish in the municipality of São Vicente in the Portuguese island of Madeira. The population in 2011 was 1,221, in an area of 25.30 km². History Boaventura was a recent settlement, on the road between the southern part of Madeira and Curral das Freiras; the oldest settler was Pedro Gomes Galdo in this location, acquiring lands and establishing a chapel to São Cristóvão (the place that still retains that name). From the Elucidário Madeirense, it is unclear as to the origins of the local toponymy (which is even absent from the parochial archive), in addition to the variation that exists: Boaventura or Boa Ventura. It is assumed that the first form is the much older designation, more common and the standard illiteration. By conjecture, it has been assumed that the name originate from a place on the continent, from the original settlers, although there exists no place in continental Portugal that uses the same name. Alberto Artur Sarmento, in Freguesias da Madeira, believes that the name came from the first settler, whose name was likely Boaventura. Regardless, the fact is that the name appears just before the middle of the 16th century, preceding