Portugal Cove–St. Philip's is a rural seashore community located on the eastern

Avalon Peninsula The Avalon Peninsula (french: Péninsule d'Avalon) is a large peninsula that makes up the southeast portion of the island of Newfoundland. It is in size. The peninsula is home to 270,348 people, about 52% of Newfoundland's population, according ...

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

in the province of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, Canada. The town is a

bedroom community A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...

of the provincial capital of St. John's. The provincial government operates a daily ferry service from Portugal Cove–St. Philip's to Bell Island.

Geography

Located less than 15 minutes' drive from the provincial capital of St. John's, and covering , it borders the City of St. John's to the east, and the Town of Paradise to the west. Located on

Conception Bay Conception Bay (CB) is a bay on the southeast coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The population (in 2011) of people living in municipalities (or unincorporated census subdivisions) located along the coast of Conception Bay was 90,490 making it on ...

, it is the site of a ferry terminal which provides daily access to and from Bell Island, and dozens of people commute from this tiny island to work in and around the capital city, daily. The town motto is ''Where the Sun Meets the Sea''.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Portugal Cove-St. Philip's had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In 2011, the town’s population has a median age of 39.5 years, which is slightly lower than the provincial median of 40.6 years.2011 Census Profile
Statistics Canada

History

The community is one of the oldest in Newfoundland and has a rich history. It was founded by the

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 ...

and was one of the first villages established in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

. The Portugal Cove area has historically been predominantly

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

. The Roman Catholic population was served by Holy Rosary Church until it closed in 2022. It was attacked and burned by the French in 1696, was the site of the first road built outside the capital St. John's, it was also here that the

giant squid The giant squid (''Architeuthis dux'') is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae. It can grow to a tremendous size, offering an example of abyssal gigantism: recent estimates put the maximum size at around Trace ...

kraken The kraken () is a legendary sea monster of enormous size said to appear off the coasts of Norway. Kraken, the subject of sailors' superstitions and mythos, was first described in the modern age at the turn of the 18th century, in a travelogu ...

of legend was discovered and documented. The community has a large body of folklore and oral traditions. Settled by fishermen from the

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...

of England and Ireland it also has a small settler tradition from

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

. It is named after Portugal. Fishing had been a mainstay since the 17th century and this has been on the downswing since the 1990s.

Notable people

Marlene Creates Marlene Creates (born 1952) is a Canadian artist lives and works in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland. Born in Montreal, Quebec, Creates studied visual arts at Queen's University, then lived in Ottawa for twelve years, moving to Newfoundland in 1985. ...

(artist) * Emma Churchill (Emma Dawson), founder of The Salvation Army in Newfoundland *

Craig Dobbin Craig Lawrence Dobbin, (12 September 1935 – 7 October 2006) was an industrialist and chairman and chief executive officer of CHC Helicopter Corporation, a public company traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

, chairman and chief executive officer of CHC Helicopter Corporation *

Andrew Furey Andrew John Furey (born July 1975) is a Canadian politician and surgeon who has served as the 14th premier of Newfoundland and Labrador since August 19, 2020. A member of the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal Party, Furey represents Humber-Gros ...

, 14th

Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador The premier of Newfoundland and Labrador is the first minister and head of government for the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Since 1949, the premier's duties and office has been the successor to the ministerial position of the pri ...

Ed Picco Edward "Ed" Walter Picco (born September 21, 1961) is a Canadian politician first elected in the 1995 Northwest Territories election. He was re-elected in the 1999 Nunavut election and in the 2004 Nunavut election. Picco is one of the few C ...

, Nunavut MLA

References

External links

Portugal Cove–St. Philip's official sitePortugal Cove – Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, Vol. 4, pp. 408–409.St. Phillip's – Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, Vol. 5, pp. 49–50.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portugal Cove-St. Philip's Populated coastal places in Canada Portuguese-Canadian culture Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador 1992 establishments in Canada