Terceira Island

Terceira is a volcanic island in Portugal’s Azores, sitting about 1,181 kilometers west of Lisbon. It ranks among the larger islands in the chain, covering roughly 396.75 square kilometers and home to 53,311 people. The island holds the archipelago’s oldest city, Angra do Heroísmo, which once served as the Azores’ historical capital and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It also houses the Supreme Court, the region’s top judicial body, and the main Portuguese Air Force base on the islands—Base Aérea nº 4 at Lajes, which includes a United States Air Force detachment. Two main seaports operate here, one at Angra do Heroísmo and another at Praia da Vitória, alongside a commercial airport that shares facilities with the Lajes airbase. Portuguese bullfighting is a local tradition, appearing in two forms: the formal equestrian bullfight held in a ring, and the street-based “tourada à corda,” where a bull is led on a rope.

The exact date and discoverer of the Azores remain uncertain. Nautical charts from as early as 1325, such as one by Angelino Dalorto, showed an island called “Bracile” west of Ireland, and later a chart by Angelino Dulcert included the Canaries, Madeira, and mysterious islands labeled “Capraria”—which some historians think were São Miguel and Santa Maria. Legends about Atlantis, the Seven Cities, Saint Brendan’s Land, the Fortunate Islands, the Island of Brasil, Antília, the Blue Islands, and the Land of Codfish also persisted. Between 1351 and 1439, various charts depicted groups of islands under different names. The first link between modern Terceira and these tales came with the Island of Brasil, which appeared as *Insula de Brasil* on Andrea Bianco’s 1436 Venetian map, attached to one of the larger islands in an Atlantic group.

The first official discovery document, from 1439, credited Gonçalo Velho Cabral with finding the Formigas islets. Some evidence suggests Terceira itself may have been spotted by Velho Cabral’s pilot, Vicente de Lagos, on 1 January 1445. After that, documents began referring to a third island in the Azores, calling it the Ilha de Jesus Cristo (Island of Jesus Christ), later Ilha de Jesus Cristo da Terceira. The chronicler Gaspar Frutuoso offered several possible reasons for the name: it was discovered on New Year’s Day, traditionally the feast of the name of Jesus; it was found by a captain of the Order of Christ; it happened on a Thursday or Friday, the feast of Corpus Christi; or it belonged to the diocese of Angra under the invocation of San Salvador (though this would imply a diocese existed before the discovery). Regardless, the name was temporary—the colloquial “Terceira,” meaning “third” in Portuguese, stuck as the common term for the island.

Colonization began by decree of Henry the Navigator on 21 March 1450, placing the island under the Flemish nobleman Jácome de Bruges. The first settler was Fernão d’Ulmo, either Flemish or French, who later abandoned his plot for unknown reasons. Bruges brought families and settlers from Flanders, along with northern Portuguese adventurers—such as João Coelho from Guimarães, João da Ponte from Aveiro, João Bernardes from Lagos, João Leonarde from Vieira, and Gonçalo Anes da Fonseca from Porto—plus animals and supplies. They landed at Porto Judeu or Pesqueiro dos Meninos, near Vila de São Sebastião, depending on the source. Frutuoso noted that the earliest settlers lived in a northern area called Quatro Ribeiras, where the parish of Santa Beatriz now stands and where the island’s first church was built, though few stayed due to difficult access and a poor harbor.

The first settlement took root in Quatro Ribeiras, at a place called Portalegre, where a small chapel dedicated to Santa Ana was raised. Bruges made return trips to Flanders for more settlers. On one voyage to Madeira, he recruited Diogo de Teive as his lieutenant and overseer for Terceira. A few years later, Bruges moved his residence to Praia, began building the Matriz Church in 1456, and ran the island’s captaincy from there until he vanished in 1474 during another trip between the colony and the mainland. After his disappearance, Infanta D. Beatriz, acting for her son Infante D. Diogo (who had inherited Terceira and Graciosa after the death of D. Fernando, the adopted son of Infante D. Henrique), split the island into two captaincies: Angra, given to João Vaz Corte Real, and Praia, given to Álvaro Martins Homem. Besides Portuguese and Flemish settlers, colonists from Madeira, many African slaves, new Christians, and Jews also populated the island. They developed ventures such as wheat farming (exported across the empire in the 15th century), sugar-cane, woad for dye, and timber for shipbuilding. This growth continued into the late 19th century, with the introduction of tea, tobacco, and pineapple. During the 1580 Portuguese succession crisis, the Azores were the only part of Portugal’s overseas empire to resist Spanish control.