During the Castilian rule, the inaccessible natural isthmus that is Monte Brasil was used to build a large citadel to accommodate troops, store supplies, and munitions (in 1591). It had the dual function of safeguarding and preventing external attacks as well as controlling and subduing the city that had previously resisted the Castilian invaders. The Fortress of São Filipe, later renamed to São João Batista after the Portuguese Restoration of Independence, is shaped like a polygon, and its walls are topped with advanced bastions. It has been classified as a “Property of Public Interest” since 1943.

The cult of the Divine Holy Spirit has a strong pagan influence, due to the symbolism of the figure of the bull/cow, and its connection to the celebration of abundance associated with the harvest period. Thus, the symbolism of decorating the animals with flowers and a paper crown and the blessing with the crown’s scepter (the “decorated calf”) marks the festivity of the Divine Holy Spirit. On Friday, the calves are decorated and later sacrificed, while, on Saturday, alms of meat will be given, and, on Sunday, the Emperor will offer lunch to his guests. On Sunday morning, the procession takes place, leaving the Emperor’s house with all the insignia of worship (the crown, the scepter, the salver, rods and flags), to the Church, where the Coronation ceremony takes place. When the celebration ends, a new procession begins to the place where lunch takes place, or to the Emperor’s house.

The commercial occupation of the downtown area continued until the 19th century, when the end of the civil war, the return of wealthy Brazilian emigrants, and the commercial and urban development itself gave way to the opening of new commercial spaces with more specialized typologies that spread over a wider area of the city: the taverns, cafes and pastry shops on the way to the “Páteo da Alfândega”, while the restaurants, taverns and eating places preferred the proximity of the port and the streets of “Sº Espírito” or “Canos Verdes”; couriers on the streets of “Palha” and “Rosa”; traditional wood wellies makers, potters and sausage shops on the streets of “Guarita” and “Galo”, hardware stores and farms where there were a clerk’s apprentice willing to become bosses.

Its centrality, its rich soil, its safe bay and its monumentality have turned Angra do Heroísmo into a city whose historical importance is recognized throughout the world. Linked to maritime expansion, this port city was an unavoidable stop for the fleets from South America, Africa and the Indies. Here people traded in spices, precious metals from the Americas, fine fabrics, wood, ivory, temperas and religious imagery. Angra was the center of the world, and it was where Philip II built his greatest fortress, considered to be the largest stronghold of Europe, following the 1580-83 succession crisis, during which heroically Portugal was only the island of Terceira, the last remaining piece of the former kingdom. In 1828, Angra once again demonstrated its bravery as it was once more named the capital of Portugal. Angra became the center of Liberalism and the place from where the men who would write the first Constitutional Charter left. The city would be honored in 1837 by Queen Maria II with the highest insignia of the Portuguese State – the Grand Cross of the Military Order of the Tower and Sword, of Valor, Loyalty and Merit. As a result of its role during the civil war, the titles “Always Constant” and “Heroísmo” [Heroism] were added to the motto “Very Noble and Loyal,” which it had been awarded after the Restoration.

Behind this were two young princes, Pedro and Miguel. The brothers were very alike in many ways, but differed in their way of thinking and their ideals.

Pedro had brought about the Independence of Brazil, which he had turned into an Empire, and had granted a Constitution. He was then called upon to defend the same constitutional and liberal interests in the old kingdom of Portugal, where people, especially in the cities, were seething with the consequences of the French invasions, and the abusive presence of English troops.

Miguel, on the other hand, was a staunch supporter of a more traditional form of government, in line with the supporters of the old regime, who had come back in force after the fall of Napoleon. In Portugal, ordinary people, especially in rural areas, but also many intellectuals who had absolutist monarchic views, were totally on his side.

Miguel seized power in Lisbon, in June, 1828, and suddenly many defenders of liberal and constitutional ideals began to arrive in Terceira and establish themselves there, supported locally by a determined liberal nucleus, despite the knowledge that the general population supported Miguel.

Located in the north of the island, the parish of Biscoitos borrows its name [Biscuits] from a particular kind of soil, black and easily cracked, which results from lava and volcanic scoriae. After the Portuguese settled the Azores, in the 15^th century, these areas, which presented obstacles for other purposes, slowly started being reconfigured so as to allow the cultivation of vineyards, and the land was no longer useless. The “curraletas”, laboriously built with thin walls and trails designed and located so as not to damage the cultivation but to ensure the passage, cover an approximately 400-acre stretch which is now included in the areas under the responsibility of the Terceira’s Natural Park, where they coexist with natural ecosystems and habitats.

A little over 20,000 years ago, a small volcano emerged on the south coast of Terceira Island, which until that point had been quite round, creating the most imposing volcanic structure on the Azorean coast. Tectonically, Monte Brasil was formed by a system of faults parallel to the Terceira rift, an oceanic spreading centre which crosses the archipelago of the Azores, including the eastern part of Terceira Island, encompassing the Cinco Picos and Guilherme Moniz-Pico Alto volcanoes. What can be seen today results from two distinct phases of eruption, separated by a dormant period.

Simon Fernandes (Terceira Island, c. 1538 – c. 1590)

16th century Portuguese navigator and pirate who piloted the English expeditions of 1585 and 1587 to found colonies on Roanoke Island, part of modern North Carolina but then known as Virginia. Fernandes trained as a navigator at the famous Casa de Contratación in Seville, but later took up arms against the Spanish empire. Accused of piracy in 1577, he was saved from the gallows by Sir Francis Walsingham, becoming a Protestant and a subject of the Queen of England. In 1578 he entered the service of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and later Sir Walter Raleigh, piloting the failed 1587 expedition to Roanoke, known to history as the “Lost Colony”. Fernandes disappears from the records after 1590, when he left with an English fleet for the Azores. A copy of one of his maps of the east coast of North America still survives in the Cotton Collection, and was one of the main sources used by John Dee for his 1580 map justifying English claims to North America.