Monte Palace - Funchal - Madeira - Portugal Stock Photography

he Monte Palace Madeira occupies an area of 70.000 square meters and houses an huge exotic plant’s collection, coming from all over the world, together with swans and duck’s, that populates the central lake, peacocks and chickens, that walk free in the main areas of the property. In the central lake, the visitor may also admire the beauty and majesty of the swans. They prefer the relatively shallow cool water of lakes and ponds as their natural habitat. Despite of being actually admired in gardens all over the world, the black swans originate from Australia, Tasmania and New Zeeland and the wild white swans have their origin in Iceland and Scandinavia. The Monte Palace Madeira Museum is an ideal exhibition space nestled within the beautiful surroundings of a tropical garden. There are three floors, two of which are dedicated to sculptures and the third houses a unique mineral collection gathered from the four corners of the world. The exposition entitled 'African Passion' shows part of a collection of contemporary Zimbabwean sculpture from the period 1966 to 1969. More than a 1000 sculptures are distributed on two floors of the museum. The top floor concentrates on individual creations, allowing the viewer time to observe the characteristics and workmanship of each artist. The second floor captures the environment in which these talented men and women work in order to create and display their sculptures to the world.