Santa Maria is the oldest volcanic island in the Azores at around 8 million years old. It would have been discovered by Diogo Silves around 1427 and visited by Christopher Columbus, on his return from America, in 1493. Chronicler Gaspar Frutuoso says that the first settlers came from the Portuguese continent, namely from locations located in the Alentejo and Algarve. From the beginning, the manufacture and export of clay and crockery began. The inhabitants of this island went by the hundreds to Brazil in a great hunger crisis that settled in the island in the year of 1579, but also in later centuries, as the case of the trip of 100 couples to the states of Maranhão, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande from the South and, after the 18th century, they would leave for the United States, including Hawaii with trips of more than 5 months by boat. The 1st Donatory Captain on the island was Infante D. Henrique. Almost from the beginning of their settlement, these people suffered from attacks by Pirates and Corsairs, namely from the Kingdoms of Spain, but also from France.
In the 19th century, the island of Santa Maria is regularly visited by whaling boats coming from Cape Verde. In the 20th century, we point out that it was in Santa Maria that the first Republican City Council existed, still in 1908, in the middle of the Constitutional Monarchy. Also noteworthy was the opening of Santa Maria Airport in 1945. In 2008, Santa Maria receives an Operational Base from the European Space Station. It currently has about 5,500 inhabitants.
Last modified: 15 de July, 2021
