Santa Luzia ( Portuguese for

Saint Lucy Lucia of Syracuse ( – 304 AD), also called Saint Lucia () and better known as Saint Lucy, was a Roman people, Roman Christian martyr who died during the Diocletianic Persecution. She is venerated as a saint in Catholic Church, Catholic, Angl ...

) is a parish in the municipality of

Angra do Heroísmo Angra do Heroísmo (), or simply Angra, is a city and municipality on Terceira Island, Portugal, and one of the three capital cities of the Azores. Founded in 1478, Angra was historically the most important city in the Azores, as seat of the Roma ...

on the island of

Terceira Terceira () is a volcanic island in the Azores archipelago, about a third of the way across the North Atlantic Ocean at a similar latitude to Portugal's capital Lisbon, with the island group forming an insular part of Portugal. It is one of the ...

, in the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

. The population in 2011 was 2,755, in an area of 1.26 km². It is the smallest parish in Angra do Heroísmo. Part of its territory integrates the historical center of the city of Angra do Heroísmo classified as UNESCO World Heritage. Its built heritage includes the monument Memória a D. Pedro IV, the mansion Madre de Deus, the Church of Santa Luzia and Angra do Heroísmo Cultural and Congress Center.

History

Of the five civil parishes that constitute the urban area of Angra do Heroísmo, Santa Luzia is the most recent, founded in the first years of the

Iberian Union The Iberian Union is a historiographical term used to describe the period in which the Habsburg Spain, Monarchy of Spain under Habsburg dynasty, until then the personal union of the crowns of Crown of Castile, Castile and Crown of Aragon, Aragon ...

(on 18 August 1595). It was Bishop Manuel de Gouveia (then

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of Angra) who proposed the creation of the ecclesiastical parish from a portion of Sé, that included: the ''Rua de Paulus Gomes'' the two bands until the home of George de Lemos de Betancor, down to the fountain and forward to the house of the sheriff, from there to the Castle and from there to the Serra cut by the ravine and mills with all the residents that exist within those limits. He justified it owing to the large faith community, the need to control transit on the island's port and the necessity to have access to health care services (at the time administered by the church). At the time of its creation the parish of Santa Luzia had only about 300 homes, with four per capita, the population only consisted of between 1200 and 1500 souls. There already existed a hermitage to the invocation of Santa Luzia, simplifying the de-annexation of the parish; it was constructed originally by a pious couple at the limits of their property, João vaz Merens and Catarina Lourenço Fagundes, although their selection of Saint Lucia is unclear. In a documented dated in 1551, Joana Fernandes ou Rodrigues, a widow, donated lands in order to raise a church to Santa Luzia, reformulate or expand the existing hermitage (ostensibly for the founders and not for a future church) at the end of the 16th century.Valdemar Mota (1995), p.76

References

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External links

Câmara Municipal de Angra do Heroísmo: Obras: Plano Director Municipal: Imagens
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Luzia (Angra do Heroismo) Freguesias of Angra do Heroísmo