Discover Terra Cha: Landscape, Culture and Local Traditions

Terra Chã combines a rural landscape with remarkable insights into the culture of Terceira. The place lies slightly inland from the sea, yet close to the city as well as the forests and inland areas. This makes a stay particularly suitable for you if you would like to combine nature, history and local traditions.

Between Views, Forest and Pastureland

An impressive starting point for getting oriented is the Miradouro das Veredas. The viewpoint is located on a large rocky promontory between the island’s interior and the sea, offering panoramic views of Terra Chã, the Serra de Santa Bárbara mountain range and Monte Brasil. From Terra Chã, views of Pico, São Jorge and Faial also open up at medium altitude. The landscape also includes forest and the slopes of Serra de Santa Bárbara.

The village retains a rural structure shaped by traditional livestock farming. This combination of cultural landscape and nature makes Terra Chã interesting for different kinds of holiday days: you can include viewpoints and forests in your plans or explore the traditional ways of life on the island. In Fonte Faneca, Quinta do Galo offers guided walks, adding to the opportunities to get to know the surrounding area as part of an accompanied activity.

Churches, Festivals and Places of Remembrance

The Igreja da Nossa Senhora de Belém stands on the site of a chapel that Sebastião Álvares and his wife Grácia Fernandes had built in 1570 after making a vow to Our Lady of Belém. The foundation stone of the present church was laid in November 1846; it was opened for worship in 1857. Inside is a Baroque altarpiece from the 17th century in the main chapel. Anyone interested in sacred art and the historical development of a place will find several eras brought together here in a single tangible building.

The annual festivals in Terra Chã are among the religious traditions, with their essential customs continuing to be maintained. The Império do Terreiro is the oldest Espírito-Santo império in Terra Chã and dates back to 1861. Its festivals take place on Whit Sunday and Trinity Sunday. The Memorial aos Ganadeiros in Fonte Faneca offers another way of exploring the history of the place. It commemorates the cattle breeders associated with Terra Chã; its mural documents the cattle farms of Virgínio de Barcelos (1926), Patrício de Sousa Linhares (1936) and Ti Cândido das Bicas (1936).

The Chafariz Caminho para Belém is also part of the local history. Public fountains served to supply water and were often also used as watering troughs for livestock. For this fountain, the water came from the Nascente da Fonte da Telha spring in the Freguesia do Posto Santo and flowed through clay pipes.

Local Products and Natural Monuments

Terra Chã is home to chestnut groves of the “Viana” variety passed down from the past. For the past nine years, the Junta de Freguesia of Terra Chã has been working with the Departamento de Ciências Agrárias of the Universidade dos Açores on measures to preserve and enhance this chestnut as a local product. Alongside pastures and forest, this gives the landscape a distinctive culinary and agricultural dimension.

Another natural feature is a til tree (Ocotea foetens, (Aiton) Benth. et Hook. f.) in Canada de Belém, Terra Chã. It was classified in 1966; a 50-metre zone is specified for it. Individual features like these are worth seeking out deliberately, away from a simple list of sights.

Choosing the Right Starting Point

When looking for a holiday apartment, you can therefore consider which focus should shape your stay: views and landscape, religious festivals, local history or a guided walk. Terra Chã is suitable as a point of reference for a trip that does not merely collect individual attractions, but relates the island’s rural culture, nature and history to one another. For further orientation, you can also consult the pages on Serreta, S. Bento, Santa Barbara, Angra Do Heroísmo, S. Sebastiao, Altares, Raminho and Porto Martins.

For the overarching travel overview: Terceira.