The Casa das Mudas Centro das Artes, on the Portuguese Island of Madeira, crowns a basalt promontory 600 feet above the Atlantic, but from its entry atop the precipice, the building disappears. Toward the cliff’s edge, past the simple 16th-century house that gives the art center its name, an expansive, inaccessible platform of basalt starkly frames the sea and distant horizon. This stone surface bears what appear to be runic incisions, but are actually rows of planters, and the deeper erosions formed by sunken patios and light wells. Visitors arriving by car catch another plunging glimpse of the sea as they ramp down into the garage under the entry terrace.
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