Flores Island, Portugal

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Volcano of Flores
Image:FloresFromSpace.jpg Satellite picture of the Island Flores, Azores.
Elevation:	915 m (3,002 feet)
Coordinates:	Template:Coor d
Location:	Azores
Highest point:	Morro Alto (914 m)
Length:	17 km
Width:	12.5 km
Type:	Stratovolcano (extinct)
Last eruption:	950 BC ± 100 years
First ascent:
Easiest route:

Flores Island (pron. IPA /Template:IPA/) is an island of the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago. It has a surface of 143 square kilometers and a 2003 population of 3907 inhabitants.

1 Demographics
2 The landscape
3 History
4 People
5 External links

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Demographics

Flores is divided into two municipalities (concelho), Santa Cruz das Flores in the north, with 1820 inhabitants, and Lajes das Flores in the south. The economy of the island is mainly agricultural, with yams and grain. Due to the early settlers being from northern Portugal, the island's houses and streets resemble those found there. Portugal has a military agreement with France permiting to France to have a base in the region. The island also has an airport.

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The landscape

Flores lies like the island of Corvo on the American Continental Plate. Fajã Grande is the westernmost village in all of Europe.

The Flores Island is said to be one of the most beautiful of the Azores Islands, of which it is part of the western group. In summer time, the island is covered by thousands of hydrangeas, which have large blue or pink flowers. Flores is the Portuguese for flowers, and this is the source of the island's name.

The Island has deep valleys and high peaks. Morro Alto is the highest peak of the island, reaching an altitude of 914 meters; Sete Pés, Burrinha and Marcel are other peaks on the island. It has several dead volcanoes; Caldeira Funda das Lajes last erupted in 1200 BC, and Caldeira Comprida in 950 BC. Some of these volcanoes have calderas (or "caldeiras" in Portuguese) in which water has collected to form lakes. There are seven of these lakes on the island. The caldera Lagoa Funda is considered the most beautiful. The Águas Quentes are small hot springs of boiling sulphurous water.

The Gruta de Enxaréus is an enormous cavern, about 50 meters long and 25 meters wide.

In the Forest park of Fazenda de Santa Cruz, because of its microclimate, the conditions allow the development of a great amount and variety of exotic species of the five continents.

In the municipality of Lajes das Flores, one can find, by the sea, Fajãzinha, a typical Azorean village with ruins of water mills. There one can also find the waterfalls of Ribeira Grande that drop from a height of three hundred meters, and consists of at least 20 waterfalls, some of which drop into the Atlantic Ocean.

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History

The island of Flores was discovered in 1450 by Diogo de Teive and his son João de Teive. The earlier names of the island were São Tomás (Portuguese for Saint Thomas) and Santa Maria. The island was first settled by the Flemish nobleman William van der Haegen (Guilherme da Silveira), after having a meeting with Dona Maria Vilhena, who administered the island in the name of her young son, Rui de Teles. Vilhena and Van der Haegen came to an agreement and Haegen moved to the island between 1480 and 1490. Van der Haegen arrived in the Azores in 1469, and lived for a time on the island of Faial. Later he left for Terceira, living there a few years prior to his departure to Flores. He later left Flores because it was too isolated and lay on no naval routes to the rest of Europe; the island was also too infertile and windy, the export of valuable colorful pastel could have secured. At the time, the name of the island was Corvo. The island became permanently populated in the reign of king Manuel I of Portugal, in the year of 1510, by people of various regions of continental Portugal, mainly from the northern provinces. The island became arable, and grain and vegetables were cultivated. Over the next centuries, the inhabitants lived in isolated parts of the island, and trading vessels from the islands of Faial and Terceira came infrequently to trade whale oil, butter and honey for other products. Despite the isolation, the island of Flores was sometimes raided by pirates.

In the mid-19th century, American whalers hunted toothed whale in the waters of the Azores. Many of the inhabitants were whale hunters. One of the most beautiful American whaling ships was named the Wanderer and operated between 1878 and 1924.

In 1963, the French established a communications station on Flores. In the following years, a hospital, a power station and an airport were established which brought a financial upswing to the entire island. After the French left the island in 1994, tourism became the island's most popular industry.

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