Heroina do Mar, from Noble People, Brave and Immortal City
Sensors
Pattern on top of Monte Brasil, overlooking Angra do Heroísmo.
urban art and life
Passersby pass in front of a facade decorated with street art from the city.
Prainha and Historic Center
Lines and colors of the coastline of the historic center of Angra do Heroísmo.
Camões' Steps
Monument statue to Luís de Camões, on a crosswalk of his own verses.
Misericórdia Facade and the Obelisk
The yellow of Alto da Memória in contrast to the blue of the Igreja da Misericórdia.
Coat of Arms 5 Corners
Islet of Goats
View from Monte Brasil, with the Ilhéu das Cabras in the distance.
Jardim Duque da Terceira and Casario
Secular house of Angra do Heroísmo, as seen from the top of Alto da Memória.
Third party architecture
Twin towers of a church above all the roofs of Angra do Heroísmo.
Fountain "Fonte Nova"
Passersby skirt a modernist fountain installed next to the Igreja da Misericórdia.
Portuguese roofs
The harmonious houses that contributed for UNESCO to declare Angra do Heroísmo World Heritage.
starry terrace
Artistic sidewalks and trees make a kiosk-esplanade in the city more seductive.
Marina crowded
The quiet marina but close to the pine cone of Angra do Heroísmo.
Hiking
Passersby walk along a walled slope near the Igreja da Misericórdia.
The Obelisk of Memory
Painting works on the Memory obelisk.
World Heritage Slope
An elegant and sloping street in the capital of Terceira island, Angra do Heroísmo.
Stained Glass vs Eaves
The city is partly seen with elegant stained glass shades.
Angra do Heroísmo is much more than the historic capital of the Azores, Terceira Island and, on two occasions, Portugal. 1500km from the mainland, it gained a leading role in Portuguese nationality and independence that few other cities can boast.
Text: Marco C. Pereira
Images: Marco C. Pereira-Sara Wong
The time has passed.
With it, the life of the yellow-brown of the obelisk at Alto da Memória was gone. Aware of the importance of the place and the monument, for Angra do Heroísmo and for Portugal, the authorities remember to restore its shine.
When we reach the top of the lawn, five painters, armed with stairs, repeat careful brushstrokes.
Embossed lines and edges abound so the job requires both skill and patience.
To the north and inland of the island, the sky provided a dense white background.
In the opposite direction, over the sheltered cove to the south, the city rejected the cloudiness. It was warming under the successive streaks of the still vigorous September sun.
The walled threshold of the hill offers us a view of the houses of Angra, from that angle, above all clay roofs, as Portuguese as possible. Not only.
Just below it was a vegetable garden dotted with palm trees, with a hint of tropical that the adjoining Jardim Duque da Terceira was thickening.
To the east and west, surrounding this luxuriant Eden, two magnificent houses of God appeared, the façade and the twin towers of the church of Nossa Senhora de Carmo in a duel of secular architectural reverence with those of Nossa Senhora da Guia.
Other churches, other towers, numerous manor houses, palaces, palatial buildings and rows of buildings are repeated up to the Gaspar Corte-Real and Pêro de Barcelos roads, to Prainha and Marina d'Angra, now over the Atlantic.
They form a harmonious city, the result of half a millennium of orthogonal planning, more than that, resplendent with a prosperity and ostentation that clerical omnipresence has contributed to uniform.
Today, here and there, enriched with works of street art that leave no one indifferent.
The Foundation and Exemplary Urbanization of Angra do Heroísmo
Since at least 1474, the settlers of the metropolis strive to improve their refuge in the North Atlantic.
Álvaro Martins Homem and João Vaz Corte-Real, the first Donatorial Captains of Angra, took great care and set an example. After four years, Angra became the village. Sixty years later, it became the first town in the Azores to rise to the city.
The vigor of local Christianity followed that of urbanism. In that same year of 1534, Pope Paul III issued the bull aequum reputamus and decreed the Diocese of Angra, with religious jurisdiction over the other Azorean islands. Thus, one can better understand the profusion of churches, cathedrals, Empires of the Divine, chapels and the like.
The devotion that the people of the city and the Terceira island they preserve for God and that, as a result of the Azorean diaspora, they contributed to globalizing.
The Deserved World Heritage City Statute
After twenty minutes of contemplation and wonder, we descend to the seaside of the Angrense land, to the elegant streets of the historic center which, accordingly, UNESCO declared, in 1983, World Heritage.
We walk around the Palácio dos Capitães Generales, which the Jesuits built as a College with a Study Courtyard, but which, in 1776, shortly after the expulsion of the order from Iberia, the first Captain-General of the Azores, D. Antão de Almada, appeased and adjusted for administrative and military purposes.
It would serve as the Royal Palace, on two separate occasions.
From Paço to Paço, we descend to the ones in the Municipality, overlooking Praça Velha and the standardized black and white pavement, which there is made of human chess.
In a movement characteristic of a queen, we proceed down Rua Direita, in search of another emblematic church in Angra, Misericórdia, the city's overcrowded Marina and its favorite bathing bay, Prainha.
Basílio Simões Store: Picturesque Legacy of the Commercial History of Angra do Heroísmo
Along the way, we noticed the facade of the Basílio Simões store, listed online as a supermarket, but in which we identified a mix of guild and grocery store.
The interior, organic, made of wood, glass shelves, cardboard boxes serving as additional displays.
A display of planting seeds, tools, linoleum, feed, fertilizer and related field products forms a profitable assortment.
Right next door, the business justifies a kind of antique office, equipped with an old safe, shelves, desks and chairs, each piece more ancient and well preserved than the next, like most of the owners and employees of the family business.
The strong commercial tradition of Angra do Heroísmo dates back a long time. It's at the base of your bonanza.
Angra do Heroísmo: the last stopover in the India and Hispanic Route of the Americas
Closer and simpler exchanges aside, Angra was the ultimate stop of the Indian Career. It welcomed, repaired and supplied ships that departed from the west coast of africa to be made around the Sea and, at the same time, to avoid the attacks of the Moorish pirates, later, of the rival European nations.
With the advent of the Philippine Dynasty, the Portuguese ships were joined by the Spanish galleons, coming from Cartagena de Indias quality Puerto Rico, full of gold, silver and many other treasures taken from the Americas.
All this maritime traffic and the wealth that sailed with it even justified the creation of a dedicated institution, the Armed Office, complemented by naval shipyards and the various fortresses and fortifications that continue to defend the city.
One of these shipyards occupied the area of the current Prainha, today, a kind of rounded marine swimming pool in which residents and outsiders bathe and delight, which they use and on the walls above as an outdoor gym – provided that capricious weather allows it – delivered to naked torso exercises.
Monte Brasil: an Extinct and Hyperfortified Volcano
From Prainha, we head for what would have been the most important fortification in Angra, detached into the Atlantic on the Monte Brasil promontory, in a favorable position for attacking the attacking ships with artillery.
At the top of this extinct volcano, we have a perspective on the city opposite to Alto da Memória. We also find the Fortress of São João Baptista (Castelo de São Filipe), the Fort of São Sebastião and other walls and bastions.
They were erected and reinforced by the Spaniards, fed up with pirates and privateers, aware that, by themselves, the blessings of the Ermida de Santo António and Igreja da Misericórdia would not exorcise such demons.
A red, blue, gold coat of arms of Portugal, detached from the façade of the Igreja da Misericórdia, sparkles with patriotism.
It is just one of the countless elements of Portuguese nationality disseminated by Angra, symbols of loyalty to the Crown and, later, to the Republic that history was responsible for recording.
They used Angra do Heroísmo and Terceira, but only as far and when they could. Once the ideal context arrived, the Angrense continued to support the Prior of Crato who, from 1580 to 1582, had settled there and to his provisional government.
Angra's Contribution to the Restoration of Independence and the Liberal Triumph of 1834
From March 16, 1642, they rebelled, triumphed over the Castilians and expelled them from the island. The abnegation and sacrifice of the Angrenses caused D. João IV to grant Angra the title of “Very Noble and Loyal City".
Once independence was restored, Portuguese history quickly put the city to the test again.
Between 1828 and 1834, the Liberal Wars took over the metropolis. Angra assumed the logistical fulcrum of the Liberal Forces and hosted the Provisional Board, on behalf of Queen Maria II. From the capital of the Azores, it was promoted to the capital of the Kingdom.
In the meantime, D. Pedro IV took the Azores. made of Terceira island its headquarters and there prepared a naval and military force to the height of the conflict.
From Angra he sailed to the north of Portugal.
On the 8th of July 1832, he carried out the Landing of Mindelo from where he reorganized to take Porto and, having surpassed the Cerco dos Miguelists, the rest of the country, after sailing to the Algarves and, from the Algarves towards Lisbon, in such an unusual plan and guarded by an English fleet that the Miguelistas were never able to stop it.
In this place on Praia dos Ladrões, where the Liberals landed, the memorial to the victims of the Civil War, in the shape of an obelisk, still stands today. With an unworthy name for its importance, the northern beach was renamed Praia da Memória.
Since then, Portuguese identity and nationality have continued to twitch. Portugal went from monarchy to republic, from dictatorship to democracy.
Whatever the next meanders, the Angrenses will always and forever celebrate their protagonism.
Between 1845 and 1856, they erected the so-called “mirror” obelisk at Alto da Memória. When we got back there at the end of the day, they continued to paint and revive the illustrious history of Angra do Heroísmo.
It was called the Island of Jesus Christ and has radiated, for a long time, the cult of the Holy Spirit. It houses Angra do Heroísmo, the oldest and most splendid city in the archipelago. These are just two examples. The attributes that make Terceira island unique are endless.
By a mere volcanic whim, the youngest Azorean patch projects itself into the rock and lava apogee of Portuguese territory. The island of Pico is home to its highest and sharpest mountain. But not only. It is a testament to the resilience and ingenuity of the Azoreans who tamed this stunning island and surrounding ocean.
An immaculate biosphere that the Earth's entrails mold and soften is displayed, in São Miguel, in a panoramic format. São Miguel is the largest of the Portuguese islands. And it is a work of art of Nature and Man in the middle of the North Atlantic planted.
It was the first in the archipelago to emerge from the bottom of the sea, the first to be discovered, the first and only to receive Cristovão Colombo and a Concorde. These are some of the attributes that make Santa Maria special. When we visit it, we find many more.
Where, to the west, even on the map the Americas appear remote, the Ilha das Flores is home to the ultimate Azorean idyllic-dramatic domain and almost four thousand Florians surrendered to the dazzling end-of-the-world that welcomed them.
The world community of sailors is well aware of the relief and happiness of seeing the Pico Mountain, and then Faial and the welcoming of Horta Bay and Peter Café Sport. The rejoicing does not stop there. In and around the city, there are white houses and a green and volcanic outpouring that dazzles those who have come so far.
From one coast of the island to the opposite one, through the mists, patches of pasture and forests typical of the Azores, we discover Faial and the Mystery of its most unpredictable volcano.
Finally, we will disembark in Graciosa, our ninth island in the Azores. Even if less dramatic and verdant than its neighbors, Graciosa preserves an Atlantic charm that is its own. Those who have the privilege of living it, take from this island of the central group an esteem that remains forever.
17 km2 of a volcano sunk in a verdant caldera. A solitary village based on a fajã. Four hundred and thirty souls snuggled by the smallness of their land and the glimpse of their neighbor Flores. Welcome to the most fearless of the Azorean islands.
In the Azores, strips of habitable land at the foot of large cliffs abound. No other island has as many fajãs as the more than 70 in the slender and elevated São Jorge. It was in them that the jorgenses settled. Their busy Atlantic lives rest on them.
We were surprised, on the biggest island of the Azores, with a caldera cut by small farms, massive and deep to the point of sheltering two volcanoes, a huge lagoon and almost two thousand people from São Miguel. Few places in the archipelago are, at the same time, as grand and welcoming as the green and steaming Vale das Furnas.
As a rule, whoever arrives at Pico disembarks on its western side, with the volcano (2351m) blocking the view on the opposite side. Behind Pico Mountain, there is a whole long and dazzling “east” of the island that takes time to unravel.
We arrived at (i) the eminence of Galicia, at an altitude of 1000m and even more. Castro Laboreiro and the surrounding villages stand out against the granite monumentality of the mountains and the Planalto da Peneda and Laboreiro. As do its resilient people who, sometimes handed over to Brandas and sometimes to Inverneiras, still call these stunning places home.
We leave the cliffs of Srª da Peneda, heading for Arcos de ValdeVez and the villages that an erroneous imaginary dubbed Little Portuguese Tibet. From these terraced villages, we pass by others famous for guarding, as golden and sacred treasures, the ears they harvest. Whimsical, the route reveals the resplendent nature and green fertility of these lands in Peneda-Gerês.
We continue on a long, zigzag tour through the domains of Peneda-Gerês and Bouro, inside and outside our only National Park. In this one of the most worshiped areas in the north of Portugal.
we moved from Terras de Bouro for those of Barroso. Based in Montalegre, we wander around the discovery of Paredes do Rio, Tourém, Pitões das Júnias and its monastery, stunning villages on the border of Portugal. If it is true that Barroso has had more inhabitants, visitors should not miss it.
Discovered during a stormy sea tour, Porto Santo remains a providential shelter. Countless planes that the weather diverts from neighboring Madeira guarantee their landing there. As thousands of vacationers do every year, they surrender to the softness and immensity of the golden beach and the exuberance of the volcanic sceneries.
The journey begins with a resplendent dawn at 1818 m, high above the sea of clouds that snuggles the Atlantic. This is followed by a winding, ups and downs walk that ends on the lush insular summit of Pico Ruivo, 1861 meters away.
Curve after curve, tunnel after tunnel, we arrive at the sunny and festive south of Paul do Mar. We get goosebumps with the descent to the vertiginous retreat of Achadas da Cruz. We ascend again and marvel at the final cape of Ponta do Pargo. All this, in the western reaches of Madeira.
In its northeast corner, Porto Santo is another thing. With its back facing south and its large beach, we unveil a mountainous, rugged and even wooded coastline, dotted with islets that dot an even bluer Atlantic.
The Portuguese founded Gurué in the 1930th century and, from XNUMX onwards, flooded it with camellia sinensis the foothills of the Namuli Mountains. Later, they renamed it Vila Junqueiro, in honor of its main promoter. With the independence of Mozambique and the civil war, the town regressed. It continues to stand out for the lush green imposing mountains and teak landscapes.
During a tour from the bottom to the top of Lake Malawi, we find ourselves on the island of Likoma, an hour by boat from Nkwichi Lodge, the solitary base of this inland coast of Mozambique. On the Mozambican side, the lake is known as Niassa. Whatever its name, there we discover some of the most stunning and unspoilt scenery in south-east Africa.
By the middle of the last century, overhunting was wiping out much of the kingdom of Swaziland’s wildlife. Ted Reilly, the son of the pioneer settler who owned Mlilwane, took action. In 1961, he created the first protected area of the Big Game Parks he later founded. He also preserved the Swazi term for the small fires that lightning has long caused.
Six days after leaving Besisahar we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). Located at the foot of the Annapurna III and Gangapurna Mountains, Manang is the civilization that pampers and prepares hikers for the ever-dreaded crossing of Thorong La Gorge (5416 m).
Devastated by an earthquake, Napier was rebuilt in an almost ground-floor Art Deco and lives pretending to stop in the Thirties. Its visitors surrender to the Great Gatsby atmosphere that the city enacts.
In the century. XVIII, the Kiwi government proclaimed a mining village on the South Island "fit for a queen".Today's extreme scenery and activities reinforce the majestic status of ever-challenging Queenstown.
Texas is on the other side of the world, but there is no shortage of cowboys in the country of koalas and kangaroos. Outback rodeos recreate the original version and 8 seconds lasts no less in the Australian Western.
1200km upstream of its delta, the Nile is no longer navigable. The last of the great Egyptian cities marks the fusion between Arab and Nubian territory. Since its origins in Lake Victoria, the river has given life to countless African peoples with dark complexions.
Few countries employ cereals like Uzbekistan. In this republic of Central Asia, bread plays a vital and social role. The Uzbeks produce it and consume it with devotion and in abundance.
For security reasons, the planet Tatooine from "The Force Awakens" was filmed in Abu Dhabi. We step back into the cosmic calendar and revisit some of the Tunisian places with the most impact in the saga.
It's in our genes. For the pleasure of participating, for titles, honor or money, competitions give meaning to the world. Some are more eccentric than others.
With the end of World War II, the Filipinos transformed thousands of abandoned American jeeps and created the national transportation system. Today, the exuberant jeepneys are for the curves.
In a multi-ethnic region covered with terraced rice paddies, the women of Huang Luo have surrendered to the same hairy obsession. They let the longest hair in the world grow, years on end, to an average length of 170 to 200 cm. Oddly enough, to keep them beautiful and shiny, they only use water and rice.
Thebes was raised as the new supreme capital of the Egyptian Empire, the seat of Amon, the God of Gods. Modern Luxor inherited the Temple of Karnak and its sumptuousness. Between one and the other flow the sacred Nile and millennia of dazzling history.
Until Columbus arrived in the Americas, El Hierro was seen as the threshold of the known world and, for a time, the Meridian that delimited it. Half a millennium later, the last western island of the Canaries is teeming with exuberant volcanism.
The authorities themselves describe Kemi as “a small, slightly crazy town in northern Finland”. When you visit, you find yourself in a Lapland that is not in keeping with the traditional ways of the region.
Situated on the western edge of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park is one of the smallest but charming and richest in Europe. wild life of Tanzania. In 1933, between hunting and literary discussions, Ernest Hemingway dedicated a month of his troubled life to him. He narrated those adventurous safari days in “The Green Hills of Africa".
Kalsoy is one of the most isolated islands in the Faroe archipelago. Also known as “the flute” due to its long shape and the many tunnels that serve it, a mere 75 inhabitants inhabit it. Much less than the outsiders who visit it every year, attracted by the boreal wonder of its Kallur lighthouse.
Aside from the political and military events precipitated by Russia, from mid-September onwards, autumn takes over the country. In previous years, when visiting Saint Petersburg, we witnessed how the cultural and northern capital was covered in a resplendent yellow-orange. A dazzling light that hardly matches the political and military gloom that had spread in the meantime.
There are five volcanoes that make the big island of Hawaii grow day by day. Kilauea, the most active on Earth, is constantly releasing lava. Despite this, we live a kind of epic to envision it.
Liberal when it comes to drugs and sex, Amsterdam welcomes a crowd of outsiders. Among canals, bicycles, coffee shops and brothel windows, we search, in vain, for its quieter side.
Fed up with waiting for the bearded old man to descend down the chimney, we reverse the story. We took advantage of a trip to Finnish Lapland and passed through its furtive home.
A substantial part of Fiji preserves the agricultural expansions of the British colonial era. In the north and off the large island of Viti Levu, we also came across plantations that have only been named for a long time.
For having hidden and protected a tooth of Buddha, a tiny island in the Madu lagoon received an evocative temple and is considered sacred. O Maduganga immense all around, in turn, it has become one of the most praised wetlands in Sri Lanka.
Until 1947, the Tren del Fin del Mundo made countless trips for the inmates of the Ushuaia prison to cut firewood. Today, passengers are different, but no other train goes further south.
In 1974, thousands of Brazilians and Paraguayans flocked to the construction zone of the then largest dam in the world. 30 years after completion, Itaipu generates 90% of Paraguay's energy and 20% of Brazil's.
At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
Situated in the state of Assam, south of the great Brahmaputra river, PN Kaziranga occupies a vast area of alluvial swamp. Two-thirds of the rhinocerus unicornis around the world, there are around 100 tigers, 1200 elephants and many other animals. Pressured by human proximity and the inevitable poaching, this precious park has not been able to protect itself from the hyperbolic floods of the monsoons and from some controversies.
Kauai is the greenest and rainiest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is also the oldest. As we explore its Napalo Coast by land, sea and air, we are amazed to see how the passage of millennia has only favored it.
