Lajes das Flores

Lajes das Flores is a municipality in the western part of the Azores; it includes the southern part of the island of Flores. To the north, where it is bordered by Santa Cruz das Flores. The population in 2011 was 1,504, in an area of 70.05km2. Its municipal seat is in the parish of the same name.HistoryFlores was discovered by Diogo de Teive and his son, João de Teive, in 1452. Within a year, 20 January 1453, the islands of Corvo Marini (Marine Crows), meaning the islands of Flores and Corvo, was donated to D. Afonso, Duke of Bragança and Count of Barcelso by King Afonso V. On 20 January 1475, João Teive ceded the captaincy to Fernão Teles de Meneses, but by 1 March 1504, the captaincy was donated to João da Fonseca by King Manuel I.The first documented reference to Lajes was to the first religious parish on the island, to the invocation of Nossa Senhora do Rosário (Our Lady of the Rosary). Lajes, the town, was the first area to be populated in the southern part of the island, around the 16th Century; in 1510, owing to its natural port and growing settlement it prospered, attaining the title of "vila" (town) by 1515 (becoming, some say, the oldest settlement in the Western Group of Azorean islands).In 1587, the small community was destroyed by English privateers, then when the population was more numerous then in Santa Cruz.Initially, Lajes das Flores extended from Ribeira da Silva (now part of the parish of Lomba) to Fajã Grande (which included the localities of Lajedo, Fajãzinha, Caldeira, Mosteiro, Fajã Grande and Fazenda). The western places, with the exception of Lajedo, were de-annexed to form the parish of Nossa Senhora dos Fajã, an independent parish in 1676 (and whose seat in Fajãzinha. Fazenda, was eventually de-annexed in 1919.