The archipelago of the Azores

Friday, 25 March 2011 - 06:53 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General, Sustainability, Environment, UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time:  4 minutes

Angra do Heroísmo - Terceira Island © Luissilveira

Angra do Heroísmo – Terceira Island © Luissilveira

The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. The Portuguese archipelago is located about 1,500 km (930 mi) west from Lisbon and about 3,900 km (2,400 mi) east from the east coast of North America. The archipelago, and economic exclusion zone, forms the Autonomous Region of the Azores, one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal. Its main industries are: agriculture, dairy farming (for cheese and butter products primarily), minor livestock ranching, fishing and tourism, which is becoming the major service activity in the region. In addition, the government of the Azores is responsible for employing a large percentage of population directly or indirectly in many aspects of the service and tertiary sectors.

There are five cities in the Azores: Ponta Delgada and Ribeira Grande on the island of São Miguel; Angra do Heroísmo and Praia da Vitória on the island of Terceira, and Horta on Faial. Three of these Ponta Delgada, Angra and Horta are considered capital/administrative cities to the regional government: homes to the President (Ponta Delgada), the Judiciary (Angra) and the Regional Assembly (Horta). Angra also serves as the ecclesiastical centre of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Angra.

Angra do Heroísmo - Terceira Island © Luissilveira São Miguel Island © Luissilveira Sete Cidades Lake on the island of São Miguel © Ulrik Sverdrup Caldeirão Lake - Corvo Island © Luissilveira Caldeira - Povoação - São Miguel © Luissilveira Caravelle Vera Cruz © Luissilveira Maia - São Miguel Island © Luis Arruda Mount Pico © Bjoern.Hoernitz Mount Pico - São Jorge - Açores © Silveira São Jorge Island © Luissilveira São Mateus Panorama - Terceira Island © ericschockmel.net
<
>
Sete Cidades Lake on the island of São Miguel © Ulrik Sverdrup
In 1944, American forces constructed a small and short-lived air base on the island of Santa Maria. In 1945, a new base was constructed on the island of Terceira and is currently known as Lajes Field. This base is in an area called Lajes, a broad, flat sea terrace that had been a farm. Lajes Field is a plateau rising out of the sea on the northeast corner of the island. This Air Force base is a joint American and Portuguese venture. Lajes Field continues to support United States and Portuguese military operations. During the Cold War, the United States Navy P-3 Orion anti-submarine squadrons patrolled the North Atlantic for Soviet submarines and surface spy vessels. Since its inception, Lajes Field has been used for refuelling aircraft bound for Europe, and more recently, the Middle East. The United States Navy operates a small fleet of military ships in the harbour of Praia da Vitória, three kilometres (2 mi) southeast of Lajes Field. The airfield also has a small commercial terminal handling scheduled and chartered passenger flights from other islands in the archipelago, Europe, and North America. In 1976, the Azores became the Autonomous Region of the Azores (Região Autónoma dos Açores), one of the Autonomous regions of Portugal, and the Azorean districts were suppressed.

To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facepage pages/Twitter accounts. Read more on Website of the Azores Regional Government (Portuguese), Azores.com, Wikivoyage Azores and Wikipedia Azoren. Learn more about the use of photos.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

Theme Week Patagonia - Río Gallegos

Theme Week Patagonia - Río Gallegos

[caption id="attachment_237171" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Base Aérea Militar Río Gallegos © Arcibel/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Río Gallegos is the capital and largest settlement of the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz in Argentina. Located in the department of Güer Aike, it has a population of about 98,000, according to the 2010 census (INDEC), a 24% increase from the 79,000 in the 2001 census (INDEC). The city bears the name of the Gallegos River, and sits on its estuary 2,636 km (1,638 mi) south from t...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Basilicata - Lauria

Theme Week Basilicata - Lauria

[caption id="attachment_238944" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Michele Luongo/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Lauria is a town and comune of the province of Potenza, in Basilicata, southern Italy, situated near the borders of Calabria. It is a walled, medieval town on the steep side of a hill, with another portion of municipal territory in the plain below. It is historically the largest city in the southwestern Lucania region. The original nucleus of the city appeared probably in the 10th century, near the p...

[ read more ]

Museum of the Revolution in Havana

Museum of the Revolution in Havana

[caption id="attachment_171921" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Museum of the Revolution © flickr.com - Paul Mannix/cc-by-sa-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Museum of the Revolution (Spanish: Museo de la Revolución) is a museum located in the Old Havana section of Havana. The museum is housed in what was the Presidential Palace of all Cuban presidents from Mario García Menocal to Fulgencio Batista. It became the Museum of the Revolution during the years following the Cuban Revolution. The former Presidential Palace...

[ read more ]

Thessaloniki, Greece's co-capital

Thessaloniki, Greece's co-capital

[caption id="attachment_151083" align="aligncenter" width="590"] White Tower © MaurusNR[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Thessaloniki, historically also known as Thessalonica or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the periphery of Central Macedonia as well as the de facto administrative capital of the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace. Its honorific title is Συμπρωτεύουσα (Symprotévousa), literally "co-capital", a reference to its historical status as the Συμβασιλεύουσα (Sy...

[ read more ]

Gråsten in Denmark

Gråsten in Denmark

[caption id="attachment_239121" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Gråsten Palace © Erik Christensen/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Gråsten (German: Gravenstein) is a town with a population of 4,365 (1 January 2023) on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in south Denmark by the Nybøl Nor at an inlet of the Flensburg Fjord. It belongs to the Sønderborg municipality in Region of Southern Denmark. The town is located almost exactly at the center of a triangle defined by the towns of Aabenraa, Flensburg and Sønderbor...

[ read more ]

Bevis Marks Synagogue in London

Bevis Marks Synagogue in London

[caption id="attachment_227853" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Clock outside the Bevis Marks Synagogue © Ethan Doyle White/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Bevis Marks Synagogue, officially Qahal Kadosh Sha'ar ha-Shamayim ("Holy Congregation Gate of Heaven"), is the oldest synagogue in the United Kingdom in continuous use. It is located off Bevis Marks, Aldgate, in the City of London. The synagogue was built in 1701 and is affiliated to London's historic Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community. It is a Grade I listed bu...

[ read more ]

Lunenburg in Nova Scotia

Lunenburg in Nova Scotia

[caption id="attachment_168593" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Jvienneau/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Lunenburg is a port town in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Situated on the province's South Shore, Lunenburg is located on the Fairhaven Peninsula at the western side of Mahone Bay. The town is approximately 90 kilometres southwest of the county boundary with the Halifax Regional Municipality. The town was established by the three founding fathers, Patrick Sutherland, Dettlieb Christopher Jessen and John C...

[ read more ]

Salem Castle School

Salem Castle School

[caption id="attachment_24559" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Schloss Salem © F. Bucher/cc-by-sa-2.0-de[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Salem Castle School is a boarding school with campuses in Hohenfels, Salem and Überlingen in Baden-Württemberg in Southern Germany. It is considered one of the most elite schools in Europe. The school was established by the educator Kurt Hahn with support of Prince Maximilian of Baden in 1920 and from the beginning accepted girls and boys. Under the Nazi regime Hahn (who was Jewish) was f...

[ read more ]

Chigi Palace in Rome

Chigi Palace in Rome

[caption id="attachment_230195" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Chigi Palace and column of Marcus Aurelius © flickr.com - jimmyweee/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Chigi Palace (Italian: Palazzo Chigi) is a palace and former noble residence in Rome which is the seat of the Council of Ministers and the official residence of the Prime Minister of Italy. Since 13 February 2021, the tenant of the Chigi Palace has been Prime Minister Mario Draghi. It is located in the Piazza Colonna, next to Palazzo Montecitorio, seat of th...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Zeeland

Theme Week Zeeland

[caption id="attachment_217888" align="aligncenter" width="590"] States of Zeeland in a former abbey in Middelburg © Marc Ryckaert/cc-by-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Zeeland is the westernmost and least populous province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, borders North Brabant to the east, South Holland to the north, and the country of Belgium to the south and west. It consists of a number of islands and peninsulas (hence its name, meaning "Sealand") and a strip bordering the Flemish pr...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top
Green Belt Germany map © Lencer
German Green Belt

The German Green Belt (Grünes Band Deutschland in German) is a project of Bund Naturschutz (German only), one of Germany's...

PiazzaBlob Eindhoven © Curt Woyte
Brainport Eindhoven

Eindhoven is a municipality and a city located in the province of North Brabant in the south of the Netherlands,...

States Theater © Andreas Praefcke
Stuttgart, city between forests and grapes

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a...

Schließen