Capelas

Capelas is a civil parish along the northern coast of the municipality of Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese Azores. The population in 2011 was 4,080, in an area of 16.85km2.HistoryThe first settlements congregated around the port of Poços, along the northern edge that divides Capelas from São Vicente Ferreira; its first settlers establishing shelters in and around the 16th Century. With elevation of Capelas to (religious) parish it became integrated within the municipality of Ponta Delgada (on 11 July 1592). This administrative dependency lasted until it was elevated to status of vila, as stipulated by the Carta de Lei (Charter Law) conferred by Queen D. Maria, on July 10, 1839.There exists a couple of versions for Capela's toponomic origin. Father Gaspar Frutuoso in Saudades das Terras notes the following:"Some say that they call it 'capelas', not because there existed in those parts churches or chapels, but that on the feast day of Saint John some men constructed there some chapels, forgetting them hung from a tree..." Likewise, the brothers Bullar, in an account in their journeys, referred to a likely reality: they refer to a general local reference to the rocks along the coast as capelas, rocks taking on the appearance of small grottos and seeming to appear as chapels.