Angra do Heroismo

I visited the beautiful city of Angra do Heroismo on the 15/16/and 17th of oct.2024.

During my stay I visited the usual places that every tourist probably visits there like the Se Cathedral of Angra,the church of our lady of Mont Carmel (3€ entrance fee) next to the palace Capitaes-Generais, the iconic church de Misericordia( free entrance) and the statue with Vasco da Gama in front of it or the Angra museum with the Guia church and the Sao Fransico convent.

On the first day I visited the Jardim Duque da Terceira park in the late afternoon and walked up to the memorial of Pedro IV from where the view of Angra is magnificent and breathtaking...especially at sunset. About a 2-minute walk from the memorial exit there is a workers' snack bar where you can get a sandwich and a cold beer and then return to the memorial to watch the setting sun and the panorama from there with beer and food. I repeated everything the following day at more or less the same time in the afternoon. ..just too magical, the sunset over the lovely and bewitching city of Angra.

Of course, I also climbed Monte Brasil, enjoyed the view from there, met exotic free-roaming chickens, had a short look at the local bird aviary with its wonderful birds, looked at the various anti-aircraft installations and military installations from more recent times, and had a look at the chapel and visited two different viewing platforms there. …

The Central Zone of the Town of Angra do Heroismo in the Azores was a relatively early WHS (1983). As no nomination files of that period have been made public and the ICOMOS evaluations at the time were concise, the ‘Why’ of the nomination and inscription isn’t well-documented. The only thing that stands out is that Angra was an important port-of-call during the maritime explorations of the 15th and 16th centuries. How this is linked to tangible elements in Angra itself is rather unclear. Maybe just ‘being there’ halfway between Europe, Equatorial Africa and the West Indies was enough.

Angra is located on the island of Terceira, one of the 9 islands of the Azores. To get there I used the weekly direct flight by charter company TUI from Amsterdam to Terceira. My fellow passengers on the full flight were mostly Dutch senior citizens. The flight to Terceira airport took only 3 hours and 40 minutes, and afterwards I immediately hired a taxi to take me to Angra where I was to stay for 3 nights. My first impression of the town was that it seems colourful and festive (possibly related to the weeklong Sao Jao festival), and not overly touristy.

It was still way too early to check in to my hotel, so I decided to start with the 1.5-hour walking tour of the town center that is described in the Bradt travel guide. It connects several churches and other points of (low) interest such as an …

I visited this WHS in October 2015. At last I can give some information on this WHS from a non-native perspective and from someone who has not been posted to work there. Angra do Heroismo is situated 1566km away from Lisbon, in one the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean called Terceira. Terceira merely has 56,000 inhabitants, meaning that it has much more cattle than people! In Azores terms it is one of the most populated since it has a vast verdant fertile land suitable for agriculture. Angra is proudly described by locals as the window of the Atlantic between Europe and the New World as well as the Atlantic's first European city. To arrive in Terceira, I flew from Lisbon to Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel Island and then to Terceira the following day. I spent 3 days in Angra (Anchorage) and I really enjoyed my time there. The taxi ride from the airport to Angra costs around 20 euros so I opted not to drive in Terceira mostly because it would be quite hard to find a suitable parking space. The best panoramic viewpoint is definitely opposite Monte Brasil just below the Monumento Alto da Memória (which really looks out of place and reminded me of the Golden Pagoda in Vientiane, Laos!). Before this monument was erected there was yet another fort/castle here. From this point I followed a clearly sign-posted UNESCO WHS trail covering 24 locations of interest. In a way it is the same approach adopted for …

I worked on the island of Terceria for 2years (2000 - 2002) I had a solo photo exhibit sponsored by the island Ministry of Culture,and held in the 150yr old theatre in the centre of the city.

I particularly enjoyed walking the steep streets early on Sunday morning, with little or no traffic noise. Plenty of friendly coffee places and genuinely friendly people The view from the top of the Angra Gardens is well worth the effort to get up there.Spectacular views from the top of Monte Brasil give an idea of this being the last stop for many Portuguese Discoverers before setting sail into the Atlantic. Well worth the effort to get there!

the city of Angra is one of the most beutifull and elegant cities I have ever seen. With in it's colorful center you can find some of the most beutifull churches in the country. Besides de earthquake that occurred in 1/1/1980, the city recuperated and transformed from a small and boring city in the midle of the Atlantic to a magnificent and gracefull place, where the people live happily and full of life. I recomend that you visit it in time of their most exuberant festivals: the São Joaninas (St. Jonh's festival) and the Espirito Santo (the Holy Ghost festival). This is not a city to a tourist. It's a city to a traveller. It smells like sea and spices. It feels like basalt and host. Many were the travellers who visit this enchanting city: Julio Verme, Countess of Segur, Pope John Paul II, Pedro I of Brazil and Portugal, Amelie of Orleans, Juan Carlos of Spain, Albert I of Monaco, Vasco da Gama, Fernão Magalhães, Carlos I de Bragança, Miguel Corte-Real, Gaspar Corte-Real, Bartolomeu Dias...

I had the great experience of being stationed on the island of Terceira with the US Air Force March 1958 thru November 1959. I visited the City of Angra on numerous occassions during that time and took hundreds of color photos, of this beautiful City and its people. The city park, the cathedral, the city square and harbor, all provided many hours of interesting exploration and the subjects of great pictures that I enjoy viewing to this day.