Vila de São Sebastião, commonly shortened to São Sebastião (Portuguese for Saint Sebastian), is a civil parish in the municipality of Angra do Heroísmo, on the island of Terceira in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. The population in 2011 was 2,096,^[1] in an area of 23.93 square kilometres (9.24 sq mi).^[2] It is in the southeastern part of the island of Terceira. It contains the localities Arrabalde, Boavista, Cavalas, Canada da Salga, Contendas, Cruz, Maria Vieira, Ribeira Seca de Cima, Ribeira Seca de Baixo, Salgueiros and Vila de São Sebastião.

Quick Facts Country, Auton. region ...

Vila de São Sebastião
Civil parish
The Achada Plain, the remnants of the Guilherme Moniz crater within the parish of São Sebastião
Coat of arms
Vila de São Sebastião Location in the Azores Show map of Azores Vila de São Sebastião Vila de São Sebastião (Terceira) Show map of Terceira
Coordinates: 38°39′56″N 27°5′28″W
Country	Portugal
Auton. region	Azores
Island	Terceira
Municipality	Angra do Heroísmo
Established	Settlement: fl. 1500 Town: 23 March 1503 Civil parish: 24 October 1855
Area
• Total	23.93 km2 (9.24 sq mi)
Elevation	149 m (489 ft)
Population  (2011)
• Total	2,096
• Density	88/km2 (230/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC−01:00 (AZOT)
• Summer (DST)	UTC±00:00 (AZOST)
Postal code	9700-613
Area code	295
Patron	São Sebastião

Close

The history of the parish is tied to the early settlement of Terceira. A year after the Infante Henry the Navigator signed a charter on 21 March 1450 in Silves to pass the donatorio of the island to the Flemish nobleman Jacome de Bruges, the nobleman made for Terceira, where he disembarked along the southeast shoreline of the island, in an area called Pesqueiro dos Meninos. But, as Francisco Ferreira Drummond later indicated, "that they established themselves a league away, on a vast and appreciable field, that they called Porta Alegre, constructing a small church to the invocation of Santa Ana, the first and only church on the island, where were annexed the chapels of Santo António do Porto Judeu and São Pedro da Ribeirinha...". Drummond later added that these early settlers moved so far to avoid impending conflicts with Spain, in which Portugal was commonly active.

This areas was the oldest demographic centre by the time that Jácome de Bruges left Porta Alegre in 1456 to launch another settlement in Praia. By this time a second place, Ribeira de Frei João was already inhabited by a nascent community. The discovery of a marble slab with inscriptions by Drummond and local inhabitants in 1780 imply that the parochial church of São Sebastião was established in 1480. Although the early church of Sant'Ana da Portalegre das Quatro Ribeiras was constructed some time after early settlement, the construction of a temple in the locality of Ribeira de Frei João was almost immediate.

King Manuel I in a charter dated 23 March 1503 elevated the local community to the status of Vila (town) and seat of the municipality (which included the parishes of Porto Judeu and the locality of Raminho, which for a time pertained to the ecclesiastical parish of Altares). At this time, owing to the Church's patron saint being Saint Sebastian, the new municipality was renamed São Sebastião.

In 1836, Francisco Ferreira Drummond fought against the idea of dissolving the old municipality and merging it into Angra do Heroísmo. On April 1, 1870, São Sebastião became part of Angra do Heroísmo and changed its name to Vila de São Sebastião.

• Francisco Ferreira Drummond (21 January 1796 - 11 September 1858), a Portuguese writer, historian and politician who fought against the extinction of the former municipality of São Sebastião, as well as author of the Annals of the island of Terceira.