Ajuda da Bretanha

Ajuda da Bretanha is a northern civil parish in the municipality of Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. It is a relatively new parish, being elevated to this status when the former parish of Bretanha was divided, forming Ajuda and Pilar da Bretanha. The population in 2011 was 661, in an area of 7.09 km².HistoryThere still exists some controversy relative to the origin of Bretanha in the local lexicon. The parish received its name from the original Bretanha of the older parish, and in accordance with popular tradition, it was adopted by the local Portuguese colonists to refer to the original settlers of the area. It is assumed that the area was originally inhabited between the end of the 15th Century and/or the beginning of the 16th Century. During this period the concentration of colonists from Great Britain, or Brittany, may have led to the local designation. Even today, the area that was the parish of Bretanha is populated by people whose ethnicity are mistaken for British nationals (skin, eye or hair colors primarily), and where the local dialect is punctuated by diction and intonations reminiscent of French. When the area of Ajuda was de-annexed to form the current administration the name was adopted; a compound phrase which means: Ajuda from Bretanha.Until 1527, Bretanha was actually part of a much larger parish known as Capelas.