A Bretanha was a former

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel in the archipelago of the

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

History

As early as the beginning of the 16th century, the region of Bretanha was already occupied by a few settlers. The first reference to ''Bretanha'' appeared only between 1515 and 1527, since the northwestern region of the island of São Miguel was known as ''

Capelas Capelas (; Portuguese language, Portuguese for ''chapels'') is a Freguesia (Portugal), civil parish along the northern coast of the Concelho, municipality of Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel Island, São Miguel in the Portugal, Portugues ...

''. In 1515, the region was deannexed from the municipality of Vila Franca do Campo and integrated into the municipality of Ponta Delgada (which was created in 1499). There is little information that survives from this period (1515-1527), a point in the region's chronology occupied with early settlement. At that time historian

Gaspar Frutuoso Gaspar Frutuoso (c.1522 in Ponta Delgada – 1591 in Ribeira Grande) was a Portuguese priest, historian and humanist from the island of São Miguel, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. His major contribution to Portuguese history was hi ...

named then area ''Bretanha'', for the rugged, highlands of Brittany: the area was referred to as the ''places of the north'' (and may have colloquially referred to the Portuguese vernacular, as "distant lands in the north"). Later authors would attribute the regions name to an emigrants from Brittany, who lived in the lands of this region. Francisco Drumond described it as ''"a port village that sheltered the furious winds, situated on land little elevated, oriented to the north, a league and half to the west of Santo António"''. The church of Nossa Senhora da Ajuda existed in 1525, in 1716 the Church of Nossa Senhora da Ajuda was founded and in 1856, the Church of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios was also established, serving an ever-increasing agrarian population. These settlements were based primarily on agriculture, herding and fishing. In 1960, Bretanha comprised three localities: Remédios, Ajuda and Pilar. Remédios was deannexed from Bretanha (by decree-law 43.392) on 13 December 1960, to form the parish of Remédios. Bretanha ceased to function as an independent parish on 10 July 2002 (under decree-law 24A/02), when it was subdivided into two new civil parishes of Ajuda da Bretanha and

Pilar da Bretanha Pilar da Bretanha is a civil parish in the municipality of Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. It was de-annexed from the historical parish of Bretanha on 10 July 2002, along with Ajuda da Bre ...

Geography

The parish had an area of approximately and approximately 1334 inhabitants at the time that it was divided, pertaining to a population density of little over 102 people per square kilometre.

References

;Notes {{Reflist, 30em Former subdivisions of the Azores