Called São Miguel, or the Green Island. It is the largest island in the Archipelago of the Azores, located to the east along with Santa Maria, making the Eastern Island group of the Archipelago of the Azores. It has an area of 759.41 Km2, a length of 65Km and a width of 14Km.

It's discovery happened around the XIV century, however it is believed, that there existed earlier maps that indicated it's existence. It's populating had it's start in 1439, after Prince Henry the Navigator ordered the shipment of cattle to seven islands in the archipelago. It is here that colonist arrived from the Portuguese regions of Estremadura, Algarve, Alto Alentejo and foreigners from France (a tradition present in the name of the village of Bretanha).

Thanks to the fertility of it’s soil and it’s geographical position, the island of São Miguel from the beginning, developed economically. Here they produced enormous quantities of wheat, pastel, fern, wine, dairy products, sweet potato, corn, terra root, wicker and orange.

The oranges, exported to England, brought to the island of São Miguel, in the late XVIII century, a great prosperity and enrichment.

However this prosperity is shaken up in 1860, when a disease completely exterminated all the orchards that sustained the island. But, thanks to the efforts of it’s inhabitants, this phase ended with the introduction of new cultivations – tobacco, tea, aloe, chicory, sugar beet and pineapple that guaranteed the economic survival and would join together, with the passing of the years, to the industrial years of many sectors, including fishing and cattle raising.

Today, São Miguel is a center of political and administrative decisions, an island in constant development, with museums and monuments, historic landmarks with restaurants, stores, hotels. A must see for anyone visiting the Azores.

Festivities
There are many festivals that take place on the island of São Miguel, meanwhile, it is the festival of Senhor Santo Cristo that mobilizes thousands of people from all the islands and from all over the world, primarily Portuguese immigrants living abroad. This festival takes place in the city of Ponta Delgada and it is commemorated annually on the fifth Sunday after Easter. The statue of Senhor Santo Cristo, goes through a procession in the streets of Ponta Delgada, being then taken to the Esperança convent. This festival has, not only a religious component but also a profane one, with fairs, exhibitions, and the traditional “trasquinhas” where one can get something to eat and drink.

Many are the festivals that take place in the municipalities and localities of São Miguel, that every year have their cultural weeks, festivals in honor to their respective patron saint, animated festivals with bands, folklore and local groups. However, for those more demanding, we also have to offer many museums and ethnographical houses that exist around the entire island.

From April to June, it is also commemorated the most traditional festivals known in the Azores, the Holy Ghost Festivals, in which faith for the Holy Ghost is mixed with fanfare and where you can take advantage of the magnificent scenery enriched by the aroma of the flowers that flourish around this time of year.

The procession of Our Lord of the Sick, with its beautiful carpets made of fresh flowers, that decorate the streets of the city. These festivals take place in the city of Ribeira Grande with men on horseback parading through the street, where in verse they pay homage to the patron saint, or even the Romeiros(or Roamers), a group of men, praying, roaming the island by foot(hence their name). They are perhaps religious gatherings that you cannot miss.

Last but not least we have the folklore, extremely well preserved by many existing groups on the island. Rich, whether it’s in their outfits, or in it’s dances and it’s traditional songs, the folklore of São Miguel is a perfect example of the will to preserve the customs of the land.

It is here that the Our Lord Saint Christ of Miracles takes place
First in Ponta Delgada, with its monuments, active and colored life. Afterwards you should know the island. A journey to the coastline let’s you see it’s boardwalks, horizontal to the sea. Going through Lagoa, with it’s ceramic decorated in blue. Vila Franca do Campo and it’s testimony of its history; Furnas and its gardens, lagoons, and the phenomenal volcanoes of the “caldeiras”.
The scenery turns more accentuated. Visiting Povoação and Nordeste. The flowery lookout points are a treat for the eyes. Before reaching Ribeira Grande, the second city of the island, it is important to appreciate the dramatic Lagoa do Fogo. The journey can continue straight to the edge of the ocean or right back to the interior, where the Lagoon of Sete Cidades transforms the scenery in poetry.

The delicious cozido das Furnas, prepared in volcanic caldrons? Or try the fresh fish and seafood, the tender meat simply grilled or prepared according to old and traditional recipes. The pleasures of the table continue with the sweet and perfumed pineapple, or old fashioned convent sweets, the Liquor of Passion Fruit. Of which each meal will stay in your memory forever.

Cuisine
Dishes of caldo azedo, the torresmos de molho de figado, the linguiça with terra root, the mixed roast, the stewed or roast octopus, the arroz de lapas, the lapas de molho Afonso, the caldeiradas de peixe, the chicharrinhos com molho vilão, the morcela with pineapple, the cozido da caldeira, are some of the specialties that you can try and the certainly won’t leave you indifferent. In terms of seafood, we have limpets, periwinkles, lobster, and crab. In terms of dessert, the massa sovadam the bolos lêvedos, the malassadas, the cupcakes of Vila Franca, the fofas da Povoação and the barrigas de freira. Sweets that are typical to São Miguel.

There is an enormous diversity of cheeses on the island, that go from the soft to the dry, from the more fresh, produced from cow or goat milk, to the more old fashioned that is necessary to wait a period or many weeks to ferment and gain it’s very characteristic taste.

The Pineapple of São Miguel is now a reference for all that pass through that they cannot avoid trying. The pineapple of São Miguel is exported to all the islands as well as to Mainland Portugal.

The island also produces Vinho de Cheiro, being the most known, the wine produced in the region of Caloura. In terms of Liquors a special reference to those made from passion fruit and pineapple. Tea, produced in Gorreana and Porto Formoso is a drink to appreciate.

Things to See
Ilheu de Vila Franca do Campo: Natural reserve, with a natural pool in it’s interior making you remember a (---). It can be visited from June to September, via boat, that makes a connection from the pier in Vila Franca do Campo.

Sete Cidades: With its many lagoons, in the middle of a volcanic crater. Sete Cidades is an important tourist spot in the island and in the Azores. Its houses make you remember a small hamlet where the regional architecture is mixed with the green of the scenery.

Furnas: Site rich in it’s volcanic phenomenons, such is the case of its hot water, mud, and medicinal water fumaroles. In all of Furnas there are more than 20 thermal spring that makes it one of the areas with the largest number hydro poles in the world. The locals take advantage of the land, to make the famous “cozido nas caldeiras”, which consists in cooking, under the hot ground, various vegetables, sausages and meats.

Nordeste: The most flowery municipality in Portugal and most extraordinary… with successions of mountains, pathways, creeks and lookout points, covered by mantles of flowers. It is also recommended to visit the highest point on the island with 1105 meters in altitude designated as Pico da Vara and the reserve of Pinhal da Paz.

Touristic Guide
Sceneries of breathtaking beauty with ample spaces of tranquality between the green and flowers, São Miguel is the vacation spot for those who like culture, sports… or simply contemplating nature.

First, there are the lagoons that captivate our sight. Sete Cidades is one of the more beautiful, in which predominates the green and blue of its waters. The Lagoa do Fogo, dramatic in it’s framing in lava and ocean. Lagoa das Furnas, a mirror of water that looks like it came out of a fairy tale, that doesn’t lack the gothic spiral of a chapel. Afterwards, the Valley of Furnas, vicarious garden at the bottom of a crater, that run the creeks full of hot water. In its interior, Terra Nostra Park, where exotic species of plants along with plants form cold countries mix together. The fervent vapour of the Caldeiras brings back the volcanica origins of the island.

Brown sandy beaches invite hours of joy in an ocean warmed by the Gulf Stream or for surfboards. Tennis, horseback riding, sailing, sport fishing at high sea.

To conclude, the visit to the only tea plantation in Europe, all the charm of multiple sceneries made up of pastures and many cows, thick forests, and many flowers and lookout points that cover the land and the ocean for days of vivid and intense vacationing.