Flores Island, Portugal
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| Volcano of Flores | |
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| Missing image FloresFromSpace.jpg Satelite 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 is an island of the Azores, a Portugese archipelago. It has a surface of 143 square kilometers and a 2003 population of 3907 inhabitants.
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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.
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 blue flowers. Flores is the Portuguese for flowers, the source of the island's name.
The Island has deep valleys and high peaks. Morro Alto is the highest peak of the island with 914 meters, Sete Pés, Burrinha and Marcel are other peaks in the island. It has old and dead volcanoes and living lakes. In the center of the island seven volcanic lakes are placed. The lake Lagoa Funda is seen as the most beautiful. The Águas Quentes are a small hot springs of boiling sulphurous waters.
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, that is a typical Azorean village with ruins of water mills. There one can also find the Waterfalls of Ribeira Grande that drops from three hundred meters high, and has at least 20 waterfalls, some of which drop into the Atlantic Ocean.
History
The Flores island 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 a Fleming noble William van der Haegen (Guilherme da Silveira), after having a meeting with Dona Maria Vilhena, who administrated the island in the name of her son, Rui de Teles, that was too young. Vilhena and Van der Haegen settled an agreement and Haegen moved to the island between 1480 and 1490. Van der Haegen arrived in the Azores in 1469, and lived in the island of Faial, later he left for Terceira, living there some years earlier to his departure to Flores. He later left Flores because it lay to separated and had no boat routes to the rest of Europe and the island was to infertile and windy, the export of valuable colorful pastel could have secured. In that 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, with people of some regions of continental Portugal, mainly of the northern provinces. The island became arable and cultivated corn, grain and vegetables. In the next centuries, the inhabitants lived in isolated parts of the island, trading vessels from the islands of Faial and Tercrira rarely trade whale oil, butter and honey for materials. Despite the isolation, Flores Islands were raided by pirates.
In the mid-19th century, American whalers hunted toothed whale in the waters of the Azore. Most of the inhabitants were whale hunters. One of the most beautiful American whale-catching ships named the Wanderer which began hunting uyp to 23 and 23 whales between 1878 and 1924.
In 1963, the Frenchmen established a communications station on Flores. In the following years, a hospital, a power station and an airport were established which brought thefinancial upswing to entire island. After the Frenchmen departed the island in 1994, tourism became the island's most popular industry.
People
- José António Camões (1777-1827)
External links
(in German)
- http://www.azoren-online.com/flores azoren-online.com - Azore's Portal. Information on all nine islands including Corvo, Flores, Graciosa, Terceira, Sao Jorge, Faial, Pico, Sao Miguel und Santa Maria.
de:Flores (Azoren) fr:Flores (Açores) pt:Ilha das Flores (Açores) sv:Flores (Portugal)