Horta (district)

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Horta
Distrito Autónomo da Horta
District
Cidhorta.jpg
The district capital of Horta, which includes the parishes of Conceição, Matriz and Angústias
Country Flag of Portugal.svg  Portugal
Province Ilhas Adjacentes
Region Azores
Municipalities Vila do Corvo, Horta, Lajes das Flores, Lajes do Pico, Madalena, São Roque do Pico
Highest point Mount Pico
 - location Pico
 - elevation 2,351 m (7,713 ft)
 - coordinates 38°28′6″N28°23′56″W / 38.46833°N 28.39889°W / 38.46833; -28.39889
Area 776.17 km2 (300 sq mi)
Established 28 March 1836
 - Extinguished 22 August 1975
Autonomous district District administration
 - location Colégio da Companhia de Jesus, Horta
 - elevation 18 m (59 ft)
 - coordinates 38°32′12″N28°37′36″W / 38.53667°N 28.62667°W / 38.53667; -28.62667
Civil Governor [1] Rui Vasco de Vasconcelos e Sá Vaz
Timezone Azores (UTC-1)
 - summer (DST) Azores (UTC0)

The District of Horta was a district of the Ilhas Adjacentes (Adjacent Islands, the former collective name for the Azores and Madeira), consisting of the dependent western islands of the Azores, located in the Atlantic Ocean. The district of Horta, not to be confused with the modern municipality of Horta, existed from 1836 until 1976 when it was abolished in favour of the autonomy charter of the 1975 Portuguese Constitution.

Azores Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean

The Azores, officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores, is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal. It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the North Atlantic Ocean about 1,360 km (850 mi) west of continental Portugal, about 1,643 km (1,021 mi) west of Lisbon, in continental Portugal, about 1,507 km (936 mi) northwest of Morocco, and about 1,925 km (1,196 mi) southeast of Newfoundland, Canada.

Madeira Autonomous Region of Portugal in the archipelago of Madeira

Madeira, officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira, is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the north Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Portugal. Its total population was estimated in 2011 at 267,785. The capital of Madeira is Funchal, which is located on the main island's south coast.

Contents

History

View of the district seat of Horta from the World War II era warship SMS Schlesien Horta-Azores-SMS-Schlesien-Schuhmacher.jpg
View of the district seat of Horta from the World War II era warship SMS Schlesien

Officially referred to as the Distrito Autónomo da Horta (Autonomous District of Horta) since 31 December 1940, it was originally established after the Liberal administrative reforms of Mouzinhos da Silveira on 28 March 1836. During these reforms the Azores were redesignated dependencies of Portugal as the constitutionally-designated Ilhas Adjacentes (Adjacent Islands). The district's creation resulted from the division of the Província Ocidental dos Açores (Western Province of the Azores), its seat in the district capital of Angra do Heroísmo, into two areas with the latter's seat in Horta. [2]

Mouzinho da Silveira Portuguese politician

José Xavier Mouzinho da Silveira was a statesman, jurist and Portuguese politician, as well as one of the most important personalities of the Liberal Revolution of 1820, responsible for legislation and administrative reforms that shaped Portuguese institutions, taxation and justice in the period after the Constitutional Charter. Imprisoned after the Abrilada, he turned one of the most uncompromising defenders of the Charter, remaining in exile for several years after 1828, and only returning in 1834 to defend his legislative agenda, exiling himself once again in 1836. In the final ten years of his life, Mouzinho da Silveira retired from public life, before his untimely death.

Angra do Heroísmo Municipality in Azores, Portugal

Angra do Heroísmo, generally known as Angra, is a municipality and city on the island of Terceira in the Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores. The population in 2011 was 35,402, in an area of 239.00 km². It forms the southern half of Terceira, with the north belonging to Praia da Vitória. Together with Ponta Delgada on São Miguel and Horta on Faial, Angra is one of the three regional capitals of the Azores. Each capital is responsible for one of the three branches of government. It is also the location of the Azorean bishop.

District autonomy was established during the Estado Novo regime of António de Oliveira Salazar in 1940.

<i>Estado Novo</i> (Portugal) 1933-1974 authoritarian regime in Portugal

The Estado Novo, or the Second Republic, was the corporatist authoritarian regime installed in Portugal in 1933, which was considered clerical fascist. It evolved from the Ditadura Nacional formed after the coup d'état of 28 May 1926 against the democratic and unstable First Republic. Together, the Ditadura Nacional and the Estado Novo are recognised as the Second Portuguese Republic. The Estado Novo, greatly inspired by conservative and authoritarian ideologies, was developed by António de Oliveira Salazar, President of the Council of Ministers of Portugal from 1932 to 1968, when he fell ill and was replaced by Marcelo Caetano.

António de Oliveira Salazar Prime Minister of Portugal

António de Oliveira Salazar was a Portuguese statesman who served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He was responsible for the Estado Novo, the corporatist authoritarian government that ruled Portugal until 1974.

The Autonomous District of Horta was extinguished, along with the Districts of Ponta Delgada and Angra do Heroísmo on 22 August 1975, with the establishment of the Junta Regional dos Açores (Regional Junta of the Azores), the provisional government that assumed the competencies of the administration during the region's transition to constitutional autonomy. With regional autonomy the districts were completely abolished: the 1976 Portuguese constitution defined in law the status of Autonomous Region without the existence of districts. Local government authority and administration fell to the upper-level local administrative units (the municipalities) and second-tier LAU IIs (the civil parishes (freguesias)).

Ponta Delgada (district) District in Ilhas Adjacentes, Portugal

The District of Ponta Delgada was a district of the Ilhas Adjacentes, consisting of the dependent eastern islands of the Azores, located in the Atlantic Ocean. The district of Ponta Delgada, not to be confused with the modern municipality of Ponta Delgada, existed from 1835 until 1976 when it was abolished in the favour of the autonomy charter of the 1975 Portuguese Constitution.

The District of Angra do Heroísmo, was a district of the Ilhas Adjacentes, consisting of the dependent central islands of the Azores. The district of Angra, not to be confused with the modern municipality of Angra do Heroísmo, existed until 1976 when it was abolished in the favor of the autonomy charter of the 1975 Portuguese Constitution.

Generally, a local administrative unit (LAU) is a low level administrative division of a country, ranked below a province, region, or state. Not all countries describe their locally governed areas this way, but it can be descriptively applied anywhere to refer to counties, municipalities, etc.

Geography

The district of Horta included the western and the southern central islands of the Azores: Corvo, Flores, Faial and Pico. This region includes a land area of 776.17 km² of islands and islets, and the following municipalities:

Corvo Island island

Corvo Island, literally the Island of the Crow, is the smallest and the northernmost island of the Azores archipelago and the northernmost in Macaronesia, has a population of approximately 468 inhabitants constituting the smallest single municipality in Azores and in Portugal, and lies within the North American Plate.

Flores Island (Azores) Island in Azores, Portugal

Flores Island is an island of the Western group of the Azores. It has an area of 143 km², a population of approximately 3907 inhabitants, and, together with Corvo Island of the western archipelago, lies within the North American Plate. The nearby Monchique Islet is the westernmost point of Portugal. It has been referred to as the Ilha Amarelo Torrado by marketing and due to the association with poet Raul Brandão, but it is well known for its abundance of flowers, hence its Portuguese name of Flores.

Faial Island Portuguese island of the Central Group of the Azores

Faial Island, also known in English as Fayal, is a Portuguese island of the Central Group of the Azores. The Capelinhos Volcano, the westernmost point of the island, might as well be the westernmost point of Europe, if the Monchique Islet, near Flores Island, is considered part of North America, for it sits on the North American Plate.

Vila do Corvo Municipality in Azores, Portugal

Vila do Corvo is the smallest municipality in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores, constituting the island of Corvo in its entirety. With a population of 430 in 2011, it is the least populated of the Portuguese municipalities, and the only Portuguese municipality, by law, without a civil parish. Its area is 17.11 square kilometres (6.61 sq mi).

Horta, Azores Municipality in Azores, Portugal

Horta is a single municipality and city in the western part of the Archipelago of the Azores, encompassing the island of Faial. The population in 2011 was 15,038 in an area of 173.06 km². The city of Horta itself has a population of about 7,000.

Lajes das Flores Municipality in Azores, Portugal

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 70.05 square kilometres (27.05 sq mi). Its municipal seat is in the parish of the same name.

Related Research Articles

Santa Cruz das Flores Municipality in Azores, Portugal

Santa Cruz das Flores is a municipality situated in the north half of the island of Flores, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. Situated in the sparsely populated Western Group, the population in 2011 was 2,289 inhabitants in an area that covers approximately 70.91 square kilometres (27.38 sq mi), bordering the southern municipality of Lajes das Flores.

The Historical Institute of Terceira, or literally the Historical Institute of the Island of Terceira, or IHIT, is a private association and cultural institute, dedicated to the investigation and studying of the islands of the Azores. The institute is headquartered in the classical Convent of São Francisco in Angra do Heroísmo.

Father José António Camões was a Portuguese Catholic priest, poet and historian. He wrote several works of satire, including his heroic satire O Testamento de D. Burro, Pai dos Asnos.

Fort of Negrito

The Fort of Negrito is a 16th century maritime fort situated in the civil parish of São Mateus da Calheta, in the municipality of Angra do Heroísmo on the island of Terceira, Azores, Portugal.

Fortress of São Mateus da Calheta

Fortress of São Mateus da Calheta is a fort in the civil parish of São Mateus da Calheta, in the municipality of Angra do Heroísmo, island of Terceira, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores.

Fort of Santa Cruz (Horta)

Fort of Santa Cruz, is a 16th-century fortification located in the civil parish of Angústias, municipality of Horta, on the island of Faial in the Portuguese Azores. Occasionally referred to as the Castelo de Santa Cruz by locals, it is situated in the historic centre of the city, on the edge of Horta Bay. It was constructed to work in conjunction with the Fort of Bom Jesus at the mouth of the Ribeira da Conceição and Fort of Greta along the coast of the extinct spatter cone Monte da Guia, to defend the entrance to the harbour and southern access to the Bay.

Convent of São Pedro de Alcântara (São Roque do Pico)

The Convent of São Pedro de Alcântara is a Baroque convent and church complex in the civil parish of São Roque, in the municipality of the same name, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores.

Azores Day is a regional holiday established to commemorate the Azorean political autonomy established in the Portuguese constitution, following the Carnation Revolution. The date corresponds to the festival of the Holy Spirit, a celebration based in the archipelago's religious and cultural history, held on the Sunday of Pentecosts, a movable public holiday observed only in the archipelago of the Azores.

José Guilherme Reis LeiteGC IH, is a professor, historian and Azorean politician, whose functions included his role as Regional Secretary for Education and Culutre, deputy and President of the Legislative Assembly of the Azores, in addition to representative for the Azores in the Portuguese National Assembly.

A Captaincy-General of the Azores (1766—1832) was a politico-administrative structure of governance imposed in the Azores on 2 August 1766, with its seat in Angra. It remained the de facto system of governance for 65 years, until it was abolished on 4 June 1832 by D. Peter IV, but by 1828 its de jure status had made it nonoperational, owing to the revolutionary movements that lead to the Liberal Wars. The creation of the Captaincy-General was part of the Pombaline reforms to the Portuguese administration, during the reign of Joseph I, under the initiatives of Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, the Marquess of Pombal, then prime minister. A Captaincy-General operated from the Palace of the Captains-General, under the direction of the titular Captain-General, who operated as the Governor of the Azores, with additional jurisdiction on every island of the Azorean archipelago. The Captaincy-General was succeeded by the Province of the Azores, an ephemeral administrative structure that was collapse in the immediate years.

The 1926 Horta earthquake, occurred at 8:42 a.m. on 31 August. It caused the destruction of many of the buildings located in the city of Horta, the central group of the Portuguese autonomous region of the Azores, resulting in the death of nine and the partial or complete destruction of 4,138 buildings.

Windmills of Corvo

The Windmills of Corvo is a windmill located in the municipality of Vila do Corvo, island of Corvo, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores.

José Mendes Melo Alves Portuguese politician

José Mendes Melo Alves was an Azorean Politician that, in addition to other positions, was a member of the Junta Regional dos Açores and the Azores Regional Government and Presidency, elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Azores and the Assembly of the Republic (Portugal).

References

  1. ↑ Last civil governor of the District of Horta
  2. ↑ Estatísticas Históricas Portuguesas, INE 2001
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