Horta

The Flemish nobleman Josse van Huerter first landed on Faial around 1465, and in 1467 returned on a second expedition, coming ashore on the bay where the town now stands; the next year he was granted the first captaincy of the island. The settlers gathered around Conceição and Porto Pim, forming the Vila de Orta — a name taken from Huerter's own surname. A second wave of Flemish settlers followed under Willem van der Haegen, and the town grew between the old main church and the bay, with new parishes created in 1568 and 1684.

For a long period Horta was a centre of commerce and travel: the gateway for Azorean oranges and for Verdelho wine from Pico, a regular stop for North American whalers, and later a coaling port for steamships. The American Dabney family dominated the island's trade for 83 years. A commercial port was built in 1876, and on 23 August 1893 the first telegraph cables linked Horta with Lisbon, making the town a relay in transatlantic communication; foreign cable companies brought money, sport and a cosmopolitan society.

The eruption of Capelinhos in 1957–58 and the decline of whaling ended Faial's prosperity, and many islanders emigrated to North America. Yachts had begun using the harbour by 1960, the airport opened in 1971, and the marina followed in 1986. When the Azores gained autonomy, Horta became the seat of the regional Legislative Assembly.

Horta's culture is the culture of a harbour. The marina is one of the great meeting points of Atlantic sailing, and the custom of painting the quay — a crew's name, the boat, the year — has turned its walls and walkways into a vast, constantly renewed collage. Peter Café Sport, facing the yachts, is part of the same lore: a gathering place for sailors that also houses the island's scrimshaw museum, with whale teeth and jawbones engraved and carved.

Whaling is remembered rather than practised. Open-boat hunting of sperm whales once sustained the island, and the factory at Porto Pim that rendered blubber into oil until 1975 is now a museum; the whales themselves are now the object of watching trips that leave from the harbour.

The town's calendar peaks in early August with the Semana do Mar, the Week of the Sea, with bands and musicians on several stages. As elsewhere in the Azores, the Holy Spirit festivals bring processions and shared meals to the parishes, and the parliament gives the small town a political life out of proportion to its size.

About 14,300 people lived on Faial, a single municipality, at the 2021 census, and about 7,000 in the town itself. The island counted about 15,000 people in 2011, so numbers have slipped slightly since.

Horta has been the staging point for each of Faial's economic cycles — dyes, oranges, whale oil, wine and cable traffic — and today depends on public administration, including the regional parliament, on the port and on tourism: sightseeing and whale-watching trips, cruise ships in summer and the steady traffic of yachts. The harbour is also the base of the ferry lines that link the central islands, with a new passenger dock opened in 2012, and the airport in the parish of Castelo Branco, opened in 1971, was designated an international airport after major renovations in 2001.

Life follows the harbour and the weather. Crews from across the world pass through each summer, ferries cross to Pico through the day, and the town keeps the close, unhurried rhythm of a place where most people know one another.

Faial's cooking follows the wider Azorean table, built on the sea and on island farming. Lapas grelhadas — limpets grilled with butter and garlic — are a delicacy of the islands. Bolo lêvedo, the sweet sourdough muffin of the Azores, is eaten across the islands, and Queijo São Jorge, a slightly spicy cow's-milk cheese, is made on the neighbouring island of São Jorge.

Wine links Horta with Pico across the channel. Verdelho is one of Pico's three traditional grape varieties, and the wine was shipped out through Horta to mainland Europe, reaching even the cellars of Tsar Nicholas II, before the phylloxera plague all but wiped the vines out. The grape is being planted again and made into fortified wines.

The town's best-known address for food and drink is Peter Café Sport, on the harbour front, long popular among transatlantic sailors, and the cafés and restaurants along the marina look across the water to Pico.