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São Vicente

🏘️ São Vicente · São Vicente

A land of valleys, vines and Laurissilva: the municipality of São Vicente (about 6,000 inhabitants, three parishes — Boaventura, Ponta Delgada, São Vicente — over 78.7 km²) holds one of the archipelago's largest stretches of native forest, criss-crossed by trails often facing the ocean, and bears the mark of volcanic forces and erosion. Two symbols: the volcanic caves formed 890,000 years ago, visitable along 700 m, and the small São Vicente chapel, known as the Calhau chapel, built inside a basalt rock by the sea. The town, at the bottom of its valley, keeps a well-kept historic centre; the beach and its complex (2004) draw surfers and bodyboarders, and the 620 m promenade leads to Baía dos Juncos. The Encumeada pass and Chão dos Louros close the valley to the south.

  • Volcanic caves
  • Chapel inside a rock (Calhau)
  • Valley and Laurissilva
  • Surf at Baía dos Juncos
GPS
32.80390, -17.04675
🧭 Getting there
The place stands in the locality of São Vicente, parish of São Vicente (São Vicente).
🅿️ Parking
The nearest car park is Grutas e Centro do Vulcanismo, 786 m away.
🗺️ See it on the map🧭 Go there
Good to know about São Vicente4

  • end of the 17th century — The flood and the image

    A flood swept vestments from the church of São Vicente, including an image of the patron saint, into the river. When the waters fell, the image was found unharmed at the foot of a boulder: the people raised there the chapel cut into the rock still visited today.

  • 1996 — The caves open

    The São Vicente caves were among the first volcanic cavities opened to the public in Portugal. They formed when the surface of a lava flow, cooling faster, solidified while lava kept running inside, leaving tunnels behind.

  • Caves and fossils — 890,000-year-old lava tubes at São Vicente; 5-million-year-old marine fossils at Lameiros; 300,000-year-old fossil dunes at Piedade

    The São Vicente caves, born of an eruption on Paul da Serra, can be visited along 700 m; the Rota da Cal shows limestones and fossils more than five million years old; the Piedade dunes at Ponta de São Lourenço keep fossilised roots unique in Europe. Basalt columns at Foz da Ribeira do Faial, the hanging river mouth of Véu da Noiva, a listed lava flow at Foz da Ribeira da Janela.

  • Water temperature — 18 to 24 °C depending on the season (Vigário); 20–21 °C on average at Porto Moniz; above 24 °C in summer at Fajã dos Padres

    The south is calmer, the north rougher — surfers head for Jardim do Mar, Paul do Mar, São Vicente and Porto da Cruz.

Services within 1.5 km4

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